Python Learning Resources for Computational Psycholinguistics (9.19)

One of the prerequisites for the Computational Psycholinguistics I teach at MIT (9.19) is one semester of Python programming (at MIT, fulfillable by e.g. 6.00 or by 6.0001+6.0002) or the equivalent. And, more extensive previous experience is even better: we do a fair amount of Python programming in the course; more generally, knowledge of programming, both concepts and practice, is highly relevant the theory and technical methods we cover in the course.

If you have little to no previous experience in Python programming but want to take 9.19, here are some resources that others have recommended as helpful. Please note that these recommendations are not based on my own personal experience, which is not that relevant: I learned Python only after a lot of experience with other programming languages, and I learned it before many of these resources existed. If you have recommendations for other resources that you've found valuable and that you think others would benefit from, please let me know and I'll add them to this list!

Please note that in general we will be using Python 3, not Python 2, in 9.19. Python 3 fixes some design flaws of Python 2 but is not fully back-compatible with Python 2. You may still run into Python 2 code at various times, but we will try to minimize this in 9.19.

• Coursera's Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
• Codecademy's Learn Python 3
• Udemy's Learn Python: Python for Beginners (unfortunately not free)
• MIT edX's Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python (unfortunately also not free)
• Google's Python Class (caveat: this is for Python 2, but it still comes recommended