In this chapter, we are going to use the Python programming language. Almost all programming languages are capable of doing the same things, but they are usually designed with different specializations. Some languages are designed to perform one job particularly well, some are designed to run code as fast as possible, and some are designed to be easy to learn.

Scratch was designed to develop animations and games, and to be easy to read and learn, but it can be difficult to manage large programs. Python is designed to be a good general-purpose language. It is easy to read and can run code much faster than Scratch.

Python is a text-based language. Using it, we type the code rather than arrange building blocks. This makes it easier to go back and change the pieces of code that we have already written, and it allows us to write complex pieces of code more quickly. It does mean that we need to type our programs accurately, though—there are no limits to what we can type, but not all text...