Programming with Data

This chapter introduces reader to some aspects of computing and computer programming that are important for data science applications. Python is a general-purpose programming language that was designed to emphasize code readability and simplicity. Programming languages generally provide a basic shell, which usually takes the form of a simple application with a command prompt reader can use to issue commands to run functions or programs in that language. Not only does version control give access to code, it gives access to every past version of code as well. While programming languages vary in how readable they are based on the idiosyncrasies of their syntax, the tips should make any code more clear, both to other people reading code, and to oneself in the future. These bottlenecks can often be relieved by rewriting code, perhaps using different algorithms or data structures, or even using different programming languages.