Watch this section as a video on the @hydroinformatics on YouTube.
``` ## About Python [*Python*](https://www.python.org) is a flexible and popular programming language that is easy to learn and can be used on almost all [operating systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system) such as [*Linux*](https://www.linux.org/), *Windows*, or *macOS*. A large and strong developer community provides many libraries for free, which can be installed and used as packages in *Python*. Besides engineering and scientific data analysis, *Python* also supports the development of web applications and services, desktop applications (graphical user interfaces - GUIs), scripting, and [*Jupyter notebooks*](https://jupyter.org/). *Python* is used by many scientific institutions and software developers, but also more and more in other industries. This *Python* tutorial is tailored for engineers and scientists in the field of hydraulics and eco-morphodynamics. The content on the following pages is based on [Jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter.org/) and flavored with information from [python.org](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html). The descriptions aim to provide solid knowledge for the efficient use of *Python*. ```{admonition} Just one way to learn Python :class: tip This eBook is designed for providing Water Resources Researchers and Engineers with a baseline for Python-based workflow automation. Yet, there are always many possibilities to write code with many more sophisticated gimmicks, which are not all listed and explained in this eBook. ``` (inline-jupyter)= ## Get Started with JupyterLab This eBook builds on *Jupyter* notebooks that are linked to *mybinder.org*. Thus, there are a couple of options for working with the following tutorials: * Run the Jupyter notebooks in your webbrowser by clicking on the [](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/hydro-informatics/hydro-informatics.github.io/main?filepath=jupyter) buttons at the top of the every page. Clicking on the rocket button at the top of every page and on *Binder* has the same effect. Important: **this option does not enable saving your changes**. * Google's [Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/) service also enables running the Jupyter notebooks from this eBook online. To run open one of this eBook's Jupyter notebooks in Google Colab, click on the **rocket button** at the top of the page and on **Colab**. If you have an account with google, you may also save your edits in Google Drive. * Run the Jupyter notebooks locally on your own computer by cloning [https://github.com/hydro-informatics/jupyter-python-course](https://github.com/hydro-informatics/jupyter-python-course): `git clone https://github.com/hydro-informatics/jupyter-python-course.git` Note that this option requires a local installation of {ref}`Jupyter (Lab)