Python Environments and Flow Charts

Python Environments and Flow Charts

GIS5103 - GIS Programming - Module 1

Learning outcomes:

• Run a script using IDLE
• This was accomplished through writing several short scripts such as >>> print ("Hello World") as well as running prewritten code in order to set up folders for all the modules in the class.
• Interacting with Python (Jupyter) ArcGIS Notebook.
• This is one of two ways within ArcGIS to interact with Python (the other being the Python window)
• The text walks through this providing several opportunities for practice
• Thinking algorithmically with flowcharts
• Accomplished through practice exercises and lab assignment. The lab asks for a flow cart representing the expressions degrees=radians*180/pi, where there are three radians. This example requires use of all the concepts practiced in the exercises and outline in our text ( Ch 3 in Problem Solving with Flowcharts and a Little Flavor of Programming with Python.) Notice the different symbols chosen to represent different part of the code. Ovals represent starting and ending, rectangles are used for statements, and the rhombus is for inputs and outputs

Additional concepts explored: 

• Python Command Prompt
• Python Window
• Installing packages in ArcGIS Pro
• Cloning Environments in ArcGIS Pro
• Interpretation of "The Zen of Python"
• access by typing import this in an IDE
• In a phrase I took away the message that how something is done is just as important as what it is that is getting done. I've already seen examples done in multiple ways to reach the same outcome. There are many ways to complete a task, and it is up to us to find the best way to complete that task. Working with Python is as much an art as it is a science, it takes balance, restraint, creativity and vision to write inspired code. Taken as a whole they also mean that I have a lot more to learn.