What is Python and why should I use it?

[danwaterfield]

Article type

This is a conceptual article (what is...)

The title should be something like: What is Python and why should I use it?

Target audience

What do people reading this article already need to know about, what background knowledge do they need, in terms of technical or domain concepts?

They should be familiar with basic computer concepts and programs. No specific knowledge beyond knowing why people use excel, for example.

What problem is the person reading this trying to solve in their research? Try to think of a concrete example situation why someone would need to know about/how to do this thing

They've seen a few presentations about digital methods, they've heard of some cool projects. They want to know whether digital methods have some sort of use case in their own research, but know nothing about programming or even where to begin.

Things to cover

What points does this article need to touch on? Are there a series of steps to outline? Write them here
What's Python?
What's a programming language? What's a program?
Ok but why is Python popular?
What can it do?

Is it related to anything else we've written about?

If you can, point to things we've written about (or are planning) that are useful as prerequisites for this article, or as follow-up.

Anything else?

Anything else we should know? Do you have links to anywhere on social media/blogs of people asking about this topic? Do you have links to relevant/further reading?

Next steps

Would you prefer:

• [ X] I want to write the article mostly myself
• I would like you to write about this for me

In either case, the next step is to wait for Dan or Caro to read the proposal and check it's something we want to include, then we'll take a branch and start working on an outline together. Thanks for your contribution 🎉