# Python Course

## Tutorial

This tutorial is an introduction into the basic concepts and features of the Python language and in the general programming methods as well.
The tutorial is suitable for absolute beginners, but the topics are covered in great detail so that intermediate or advanced programmers might still find some useful and interesting information, which they might have overlooked or avoided in the past.
The idea of this tutorial is to provide a course which is suitable for self-study. The beginner will be enabled to read and write Python scripts and use and create modules and classes as well.
Though it's possible to read this tutorial off-line - as a matter of fact, you can create a nice printout of this website without the sidebars on the left and right side by using the print facility of your browser. Just give it a try! But it will be more efficient if you work on this course online, so that you will have a Python interpreter at hand for hands-on experience.
It's a platitude, if we say that a website is different from a book. Very often a textbook and a website with the same topic differ in two aspects:

- A book is often more thorough
- A book is static by nature, i.e imprecise formulations and errors can't be removed and there will be no growth in quantity and quality, e.g. further facts or explanatory examples can't be added.

The first one is usually an advantage for books in paper, but the second one is a clear advantage for an online tutorial. We think that our website is as thorough as many paper based Python books, so we can easily compete with them. Secondly, we are continually working on this website, so that you can see it grow and improve, if you keep returning to it.
We started work on this website in June 2010. The tutorial is based on material from our classroom training courses. We work both on our classroom courses and on this tutorial true to the motto, which William A. Foster has coined:
"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."