Python

The first week of this workshop will be spent learning the basics of the Python programming language.  We will start from the assumption that the students have never used Python and move them through the basics of the language.  The second week will focus on using these newly gained programming skills to automatically manipulate XML data.  Using the lxml and Beautiful Soup Python libraries, we will take data from the Perseus repository and convert the TEI-XML in the repository to CTS-compliant XML and then feed the data back into the Perseus repository.  In this second week, the students will design and implement their own XML manipulation pipeline that they will then be able to use later to automatically manipulate or convert large corpora of XML texts from one format to another.

Besides the basic skills in Python programming, the students will also learn to manipulate text using regular expressions, to expand the capabilities of Python by installing external libraries, and to use Python to make basic API calls, using the Perseus API as an example case.  We expect you to have some familiarity XML and, preferably, some experience with a scripting or programming language.  We also expect you to have either a Linux or Mac computer.  Any Windows users will be expected to install a Linux virtual machine before the start of the workshop.

Week 1: Introduction to Python
Day 1: Python objects and workflows - Getting Started
Day 2: First steps in Text Analysis I
Day 3: First steps in Text Analysis II
Day 4: Text Analysis I
Day 5: Text Analysis II

Week 2: Manipulating XML with Python
Day 1: Getting texts from Perseus
Day 2: Parsing XML - the lxml tree
Day 3: Tree Manipulation I
Day 4: Tree Manipulation II
Day 5: Updating Perseus