Spaced Out ::

After my Python taster at ESRI last November I was left wanting for more. It was only a 2-day course and in that time that had to introduce Python and focus upon the framework that integrates with ArcGIS. Not surprisingly there are many areas left untouched and ESRI training “days” are, well, not quite 9-5. So I booked a 3-day course at the Linux Emporium, a specialist outfit in Sutton Coldfield that focuses on Linux and Python. It was an incredibly reasonable £670 if you go to their base.

The course is an introduction for programmers and introduces Python as a language and its heritage in terms how it sits with other languages. It is mostly quite elegant, easy to pick up, cross-platform and very powerful (object oriented, functional, dynamic, modular). It is interpreted (i.e. it is not compiled) which generally makes for easier development but slower run-time. It has matured over the last 18 years, has a large community base and there are a many extensions that take it in to a variety of areas, as well as a huge resource of user contributed modules. So PyQT covers graphic interfaces and django covers web server integration (and Google is one of the biggest users). Python is written in C but comes in other flavours; Jython )Java) and PyPy (python). There is also a Windows version (Iron Python) which integrates with the .Net framework. From a GIS perspective both ArcGIS and QGIS use Python for scripting, but don’t be fooled in to thinking that its just there to iterate processes for you. It can do an awful lot more.

In terms of the course itself, there is considerable time spent introducing numbers, tuples, strings, lists and dictionaries and how you manipulate. These form the basis for all work you do in Python so understanding them (and running through the examples) is important. Further sessions deal with control flow, file operations and functions. Further areas introduce functional programming, modules and object orientation. The course fee includes support for 12 months and an extra “refresher” day taken within a year. I left knowing a lot more about Python, but also that it was a language worth investing in (for many generic data processing tasks). Highly recommended for all those that need to dip in to scripting.