What Is Programming? And How To Get Started
January 28, 2025
Article · 6 min read
This course is part of An Introduction to Programming the Internet of Things (IOT) Specialization
Instructor: Ian Harris
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The Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable single-board computer that you will use to design and develop fun and practical IoT devices while learning programming and computer hardware. In addition, you will learn how to set up up the Raspberry Pi environment, get a Linux operating system running, and write and execute some basic Python code on the Raspberry Pi. You will also learn how to use Python-based IDE (integrated development environments) for the Raspberry Pi and how to trace and debug Python code on the device. Please note that this course does not include discussion forums.
This module describes the basic functionality the Raspberry Pi B+ board. I'll describe how to set up the board, configure it, and use it. An important point differentiating Raspberry Pi from the Arduino platform which we have talked about previously is that Raspberry Pi uses an operating system. I'll describe some of the implications of an operating system on the behavior of the Raspberry Pi as an IoT device.
10 videos4 readings1 assignment1 peer review
The Raspberry Pi is typically installed with a Linux-based operating system, so we present the basics of Linux and its use. We describe some of the main features including navigating the file system and managing processes. We describe the text-based user interface through the shell and we overview the graphic user interface which is the default with the Raspian Linux distribution.
10 videos2 readings1 assignment1 peer review
We present the basics of the Python programming language to prepare you for programming on the Raspberry Pi. Many languages can be used but Python is the most convenient for the Raspberry Pi because convenient APIs are provided for basic operations such as controlling the pins. Python is a powerful language with useful features that we will present so that you can use these features to control the Raspberry Pi.
10 videos2 readings1 assignment1 peer review
In this module we describe how to communicate with devices through the pins of the Raspberry Pi. We examine the RPi.GPIO library which provides Python functions used to access the pins. We discuss how to set up the pins, apply digital voltages, and generate Pulse Width Modulated signals. We also describe the Tkinter Python library and show how it can be used to access pins through a graphic user interface.
10 videos3 readings1 assignment1 peer review
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Reviewed on May 30, 2020
Overall this course leaned me how we use python programming for working with Raspberry Pi which is helpful for me to understand the Python programs.Thank you
Reviewed on Jan 14, 2016
A nice, if a little basic, introduction to the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer and to controlling the Raspberry Pi using Python.
Reviewed on Jul 19, 2019
As an intro course to Raspberry Pi platform it's okay. I guess the next course in the series will have assignments that are more difficult and enable us to learn more.
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