In this chapter, we covered the basics of programming using Python, and introduced important Python modules. We covered how Python executes scripts and commands, and touched on the development environments used to craft scripts. In particular, we discussed Python basics including data types, containers and looping, how a Python script is executed by the Python interpreter, where the Python interpreter is located within the Python folder structure, and what the different Python script extensions mean (.py, .pyc, .pyw). We also covered Integrated Development Environments, and how they compare and contrast.
In the next chapter, we will explain how to use ModelBuilder to convert a modeled analysis into a Python script, and how to add more functionality to the exported script.
