Writing Your First Python Program

Today we're going to learn how to write our very first Python program using the print() function. This function is essential because it allows us to output text to the screen. Let's start with a basic example: print("Hello, World!"). Does anyone want to predict what will happen when we run this code?

I think it will just show 'Hello, World!' on the screen.

Yes! That sounds correct because the text is in quotes.

Exactly! The quotes indicate that this is a string. Remember, strings are sequences of characters. Can anyone tell me why we use parentheses in the print function?

Is it because it's a function? Functions usually require parentheses.

Correct! Functions use parentheses to contain their arguments, which in this case, is the string we want to print. Good job, everyone!

Now that we've written our program, let’s discuss how to run it. You can write this code in a .py file using a text editor, or try it in an online IDE. Who can tell me what should happen when we run the program?

It should display 'Hello, World!' on the screen, just like we predicted before.

And if we don't see that output, something might be wrong!

Exactly! It's important to check for errors if the output isn’t what we expect. Remember, programming is about troubleshooting and learning from mistakes. Let's practice by running this in pairs.

Great job running your first program! Now let’s explore more examples with print. For instance, what if we wanted to print your names? What code would we write?

We would write something like print("My name is Alex.")

And I could change it to print("My name is Jamie.")

Exactly! Now each of you can personalize your output. This ability to modify and reuse code is central to programming. Let's come up with another example—how about a math result?

When we run our print command, we produce output on the console. What's vital here is understanding that this output is precisely what you asked the program to display. Why do you think this is important?

It helps us verify that our program ran correctly.

If the output isn't what we expected, we know we need to debug.

Well said! The output is your program's feedback. A good practice is to always expect a specific outcome, so let’s write a program that adds numbers and prints them as well. Can anyone suggest an addition we could try?