Getting started

Since its creation in 1991, Python has become one of the most popular programming languages in the world. And, because it’s incredibly versatile and easily accessible, it’s used for everything from making web apps to analysing data. But recently, it’s become the code du jour for coding machine learning applications.

The code itself is simple to use, emphasising readability on the screen (so, expect to see plenty of whitespace when you’re using it). We’ll show you exactly how to master Python in our Microsoft Learn course ‘Introduction to Python.’

Running the code

Python executes code in a runtime environment or interpreter in two different ways.

Script mode is exactly as it suggests – it sees you create a set of commands in a text file (don’t forget to save it with the .py file format). You can then direct the Python interpreter to execute the code line by line, which is then displayed on your screen. Interactive mode, on the other hand, is ideal for testing and debugging. Every command you type is instantly executed, giving you the chance to test out each line of code you write.

Python’s Variables and basic data types

Variables are key to success with Python. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to build anything – they’re that important to the language, letting you create ‘containers’ where different data values can be stored. The most common data types used, and best for those starting out, are numbers and strings.

Let’s break down the example x = 1.

The variable in this instance is X. The equal sign plays the role of ‘assignment operator’, which assigns the numeric value of 1.

Another data type you may come across is Boolean Type, which displays values are either ‘True’ or ‘False’. But now we’re lumbering into a shadowy grey area; technically, Boolean types are examples of numeric integers, with True and False representing the numbers 1 and 0.

Strings are slightly different, relying on alpha values. As such, you can recognise a string data type because it’ll look something like this: x = ‘This is a string’

This is a very typical example of a string. But it also has the power to combine other strings using the + symbol, in a process known as ‘concatenation.’

Or, to put it another way…

Python = ‘Real’ + ‘Versatility’

Keyboard inputs

Many times, particularly in apps and websites, your users are going to need to use the keyboard. To make sure this can happen, you need to use the ‘input’ code.

Let’s say that your user needs to enter their name – you’d program the following:

name = input(‘Enter your name:’)

This also works when, say, your user needs to add a telephone number, which would look like x = input(‘Enter a number: ‘)

You’ll notice something here – this arrangement is, again, using variables. But where you’d typically assign a value to ‘x’, but adding the ‘input’ command, you’re allowing users to assign their own value – in this case, a phone number.

To then display this keyboard input on screen, you’d add the following beneath the ‘input’ command print(name).

This lets you build a command that looks something like…

<eprint('What is your name?')
name = input()
print(name)
print('What is your number?')
x = input()
print(number)

Start creating

And that’s the Python overview. You’re now ready to embark upon Microsoft Learn’s Introduction to Python course and start creating your very own apps.

Learn more

• Python for beginners
• Microsoft Learn’s Introduction to Python course
• Write your first Python programs
• Create and manage projects in Python

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You already know that programming involves you in continuous learning. It’s easy to think of the objects of that learning as technologies: functional programming languages, key vaults, source scanners, and so on. Those are indeed important and valuable.

Our technologies aren’t the only things changing, though. We always apply them within a larger cultural context, and we’re under-trained to deal with those changes.

Things we know that aren’t so

As a warm-up, recall Kevin Deldycke’s list of “Awesome Falsehoods” for programmers, including: “My system will never have to deal with names from China”, “A time stamp of sufficient precision can safely be considered unique”, “My software is only used internally/locally, so I don’t have to worry about time-zones” and “Places have only one official address”.

Twenty years ago, naive applications assumed gender was an unremarkable, immutable, single-bit attribute; current interpretation of the 2010 Equality Act elevates such data design choices into the realm of legal consequences.

I don’t know what the world of even the near future will be, and I’m sceptical of those who say they do. A few trends are so potent and certain, though, that they deserve our attention before they surprise us.

Traditional banks aren’t set in stone

From their material architecture to their public relations style, banks make an impression of permanence and gravity. This is just a cultural convention, though. The rising generation in industrial countries goes about its business with less and less use of cash and cheques, and often without traditional banking at all.

In 2012, the World Bank wrote about the “problem” of the unbanked. It increasingly appears that many of the world’s young and poor – a majority of the world population still! – will meet their needs without ever joining the ranks of the “banked”. They don’t seem themselves losing the banking game; they aren’t even playing that game.

Credit cards may face similar changes. At the same time as global credit-card use continues to grow around 3 percent annually, such alternative practices as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) are exploding at a rate of over 22% per annum. While BNPL brings its own risks for consumers, vendors, and the larger economy, these factors may remain secondary in the face of marketplace adoption. If you’re a financial programmer, you need to learn not just Angular and continuous integration (CI), but also the BNPL vocabulary.

Super apps

These shifts in consumer finance complement the “Rise of the Super App“. For more and more people – perhaps a majority, before long – money lives in their mobile phones. We’re long past the times of money conceived as precious metal, money as tangible currency, or even money as figures on a full-sized computer screen. Behemoth computing platforms like WeChat, Facebook, and Snapchat are where consumers and businesses conduct their social and economic transactions.

Keep in mind the phenomenal growth rates involved. When usage of something like M-Pesa grows 50 percent or more each year, that necessarily means the average tenure of users is well under a year. Whatever habits or practices are accepted now might well become obsolete in just a few months with recruitment of a whole new generation of users.

Devs and demographics

Further complementing these shifts are the demographics involved. Coding is the fastest-growing employment sector in the UK, with private industry adding around 25,000 programmers a year.

India graduates about ten times as many computer scientists and software engineers annually.

Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and several more countries not often regarded as technology centres also appear to be growing at least tens of thousands of new programmers each year.

The point is not to fear these changes, but simply to recognise their reality. The consumers and the providers of the business applications of the coming years will have different backgrounds, expectations, and daily lifestyles from those who have dominated computing to this point.

If we, as developers, insist on just sticking to the “bits and bytes”, it might soon be a challenge to keep doing what we do. There are no guarantees that the specific jobs of today will continue. When we open ourselves up just a little to new end-user expectations and populations, though, whole new worlds of opportunity appear.

Learn more

• Themes in reliable computing
• Globalise and localise .NET applications
• Globalisation and localisation in ASP.NET Core
• From developers to inspired creators
• Browse code samples on Microsoft Docs

The post Why developers need to look beyond code appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

When innovation becomes culture, we can solve old challenges and create new opportunities. Discover how to build strategies for your organisation that connect people, tools, and intelligence to bring ideas to life.

Tools to build an innovative culture

Power Apps

Build apps in hours, that easily connect to data with more than 400+ out of the box connectors. Use Excel-like expressions to add logic, drag and drop functionality for the UI, and run on the web, iOS, and Android devices.

Power Automate

Automate workflows and integrate them directly in your apps with a low-code approach that connects to hundreds of popular apps and services.

5 benefits of low-code and no-code apps for your business

1. Improve agility to respond to business needs

Rapidly build innovative web and mobile applications that meet the unique, evolving needs of your business.

• Infuse apps and processes with AI for deeper insights.
• Build apps in hours or days instead of months.

Connect to your data across your digital estate.

2. Empower your people to achieve more

Democratise app development across your organisation. Create opportunities for individuals and organisations alike to transform the way they work.

• Power Apps uses drag-and-drop simplicity so users can build apps quickly with no/low code.
• Use pre-built app templates to accelerate business processes.

3. Optimise budgets, time and resources to do more with less

The Forrester Total Economic Impact study for Power Apps and Power Automate, commissioned by Microsoft, concluded that organisations that adopt both technologies:

• Realise an ROI of 362 percent.
• Reduce development costs by 70 percent.
• Increase business process efficiency by 15 percent.
• Recoup their investment in only three months.

4. Automate time consuming processes

Power Apps and Power Automate integrate across the core apps you already use. Automate mundane, time-consuming business processes into streamlined workflows.

• Digitise paper-based processes and reduce errors and cost while saving time.
• Use AI to quickly process information, approvals and get smarter insights.

5. Maintain security and customer trust

The solutions you create are secure because they exist within the compliant Microsoft environment.

Get started building your no/low code apps

Now you understand how Power Apps and Power Automate can drive innovation in your organisation, the next step is to get started! You can empower everyone in your organisation to turn ideas into solutions that solve business challenges. Productivity can be boosted by automating manual processes, so employees can have more time to do value-adding work.

Low-code Power Platform lets more people in your organisation build apps and processes required to transform. Whether working solo, or delivering in partnership with professional developers in Fusion Teams, you can combine the best of both to help scale the impact of pro developers in delivering business value together.

We’re sharing a handy checklist on how your people can get started building their apps today:

Find out more

Digital Innovation that delivers a seamless experience with real impact

Join a Power Platform Virtual Training Day

About the author

Matt heads up the Digital Transformation and App Innovation team within Microsoft UK’s Solutions business. He leads a team of innovation and development-centred Specialists focussed on helping customers understand, plan for, and adopt some of the most cutting-edge services in Microsoft’s arsenal – from GitHub for developer productivity, managed container offerings such as Azure Kubernetes Services, PaaS and serverless with Azure Functions and Logic Apps, Integration Services, Event Grid, and more, through to engaging wider stakeholder audiences in the development process through adoption of low-code development with Power Apps.  

Matt’s background is firmly in engineering for innovation. With a master’s in computing and over two decades of experience from hands on ecommerce, payment and billing systems development in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s, to leading a global consulting team designing and rolling out bespoke Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting products for FTSE 10 integrated energy companies, and on to launching an IoT Pet Tracking start-up, founding, building, and selling a Digital Transformation consultancy before joining Microsoft in 2018. 

Consistent to all of Matt’s endeavors is an understanding of what is possible, how it aligns to solving real world business challenges, and always starting with the “Why”.  

The post Make app building easier: The benefits of low-code and no-code appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.