This open access book offers an initial introduction to programming for scientific and
computational applications using the Python programming language. The presentation style is
compact and example-based making it suitable for students and researchers with little or no
prior experience in programming. The book uses relevant examples from mathematics and the
natural sciences to present programming as a practical toolbox that can quickly enable readers
to write their own programs for data processing and mathematical modeling. These tools include
file reading plotting simple text analysis and using NumPy for numerical computations which
are fundamental building blocks of all programs in data science and computational science. At
the same time readers are introduced to the fundamental concepts of programming including
variables functions loops classes and object-oriented programming. Accordingly the book
provides a sound basis for further computer science and programming studies.
