Resources for the second edition are here. I'd love to know what you think about Python Crash Course; please consider taking a brief survey. If you'd like to know when additional resources are available, you can sign up for email notifications here. Paint brush illustration.
The best way to learn is to use a cheat sheet and write your Markdown document. You can update your README.md on GitHub, and you can get a lot of support from your editors’ built-in functions. As a side note, GitHub also supports emojis which you can add to your document. You can use the cheat sheet to find which ones they are. Github uses markdown in Gists, Pull Requests, Issues and README files. In this cheat-sheet, I have selected the most used markdown syntax. ? Download the pdf version of this cheatsheet ? All my cheat-sheets are in this repo (Star it!) ? Find me on Instagram Github Twitter Website ? Have a wonderful day!
Cheat sheets can be really helpful when you’re trying a set of exercises related to a specific topic, or working on a project. Because you can only fit so much information on a single sheet of paper, most cheat sheets are a simple listing of syntax rules. This set of cheat sheets aims to remind you of syntax rules, but also remind you of important concepts as well. You can click here and download all of the original cheat sheets in a single document.
An updated version of these sheets is also available through Leanpub and Gumroad. The updated version includes a sheet that focuses on Git basics, a printer-friendly b&w version of each sheet, and each sheet as a separate document. The updated versions are available at no cost on both platforms.
Individual Sheet Descriptions
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet
- Provides an overview of the basics of Python including variables, lists, dictionaries, functions, classes, and more.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Lists
- Focuses on lists: how to build and modify a list, access elements from a list, and loop through the values in a list. Also covers numerical lists, list comprehensions, tuples, and more.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Dictionaries
- Focuses on dictionaries: how to build and modify a dictionary, access the information in a dictionary, and loop through dictionaries in a variety of ways. Includes sections on nesting lists and dictionaries, using an OrderedDict and more.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - If Statements and While Loops
- Focuses on if statements and while loops: how to write conditional tests with strings and numerical data, how to write simple and complex if statements, and how to accept user input. Also covers a variety of approaches to using while loops.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Functions
- Focuses on functions: how to define a function and how to pass information to a function. Covers positional and keyword arguments, return values, passing lists, using modules, and more.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Classes
- Focuses on classes: how to define and use a class. Covers attributes and methods, inheritance and importing, and more.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Files and Exceptions
- Focuses on working with files, and using exceptions to handle errors that might arise as your programs run. Covers reading and writing to files, try-except-else blocks, and storing data using the json module.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Testing Your Code
- Focuses on unit tests and test cases. How to test a function, and how to test a class.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Pygame
- Focuses on creating games with Pygame. Creating a game window, rect objects, images, responding to keyboard and mouse input, groups, detecting collisions between game elements, and rendering text.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - matplotlib
- Focuses on creating visualizations with matplotlib. Making line graphs and scatter plots, customizing plots, making multiple plots, and working with time-based data.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Pygal
- Focuses on creating visualizations with Pygal. Making line graphs, scatter plots, and bar graphs, styling plots, making multiple plots, and working with global datasets.
- Beginner’s Python Cheat Sheet - Django
- Focuses on creating web apps with Django. Installing Django and starting a project, working with models, building a home page, using templates, using data, and making user accounts.
Available from No Starch Press and Amazon.
? 3 min. read
GitHub recently released a feature that allows users to create a profile-level README to display prominently on their GitHub profile. This article walksthrough how to access this new feature. I'll also be sharing some fun GitHub profiles I've seen so far. I'd love it if you shared yours with me on Twitter @indigitalcolor.
The above GIF shows what my README looks like at the time of this writing. You may notice I was recently selected to be GitHub star!
![Sheet Sheet](/uploads/1/1/8/3/118353671/383059741.png)
Table of Contents
Why READMEs?
The GitHub profile-level README feature allows more content than the profile bio, supports markdown which means you can play around with the content more visually (Did someone say GIFs!?) and the README is significantally more visible as it is placed above pinned repositories and takes up as much space above the fold of the webpage as you like.
A solid README is a core-component of well-documented software and often encourages collaboration by sharing helpful context with contributors. In my opinion, a profile-level README seems like a great extension of a convention a lot of GitHub users are already familiar with. If you're looking to make project-level READMEs more awesome and helpful check out matiassingers/awesome-readme for resources and examples of compelling READMEs.
How do I create a profile README?
Github Markdown Emoji Cheat Sheet
The profile README is created by creating a new repository that’s the same name as your username. For example, my GitHub username is m0nica so I created a new repository with the name m0nica. Note: at the time of this writing, in order to access the profile README feature, the letter-casing must match your GitHub username.
Already have a repo-named username/username?
If you are interested in setting up a profile-level README then you can rename the repositoryor repurpose its existing README based on what makes the most sense in your particular situation.
- Create a new repository with the same name (including casing) as your GitHub username: https://github.com/new
- Create a README.md file inside the new repo with content (text, GIFs, images, emojis, etc.)
- Commit your fancy new README!
- If you're on GitHub's web interface you can choose to commit directly to the repo's main branch (i.e.,
master
ormain
) which will make it immediately visible on your profile)
- If you're on GitHub's web interface you can choose to commit directly to the repo's main branch (i.e.,
- Push changes to GitHub (if you made changes locally i.e., on your computer and not github.com)
Github Readme Cheat Sheet 2020
Fun READMEs
The GitHub README profiles are written in Markdown which means you aren't just limited to texts and links, you can include GIFs and images. Need to brush up on Markdown Syntax? Check out this Markdown Cheatsheet.
hey, check out the new @github profile README! this is a really nice addition — I love that we can add some context (and/or nonsense) to our GitHub profiles now ?
see mine: https://t.co/Cvrch1DVFD
thanks to @cassidoo for the heads up that this went live! pic.twitter.com/xMTeBgRLh0
— Jason Lengstorf (@jlengstorf) July 9, 2020see mine: https://t.co/Cvrch1DVFD
thanks to @cassidoo for the heads up that this went live! pic.twitter.com/xMTeBgRLh0
It's not as creative as @sudo_overflow's readme, but here's what I came up with. I also plan on adding some text below the image with links to my resume, etc. pic.twitter.com/C6b8tNDo1z
— donavon 'wyld' west (@donavon) July 9, 2020Is this how we suppose use github's readme? pic.twitter.com/XvLvCUC6iD
— Pouya (@Saadeghi) July 9, 2020![Github Readme Cheat Sheet Github Readme Cheat Sheet](/uploads/1/1/8/3/118353671/275282644.jpeg)
If you're really ambitious you can use GitHub actions or other automation like bdougieYO or simonw to dynamically pull data into your README:
Check it out. I made MySpace but on @github.https://t.co/p4DWP4DxRR - My list is power by a GitHub Action workflow ? pic.twitter.com/PN80mFCqOE
— bdougie on the internet (@bdougieYO) July 10, 2020Made myself a self-updating GitHub personal README! It uses a GitHub Action to update itself with my latest GitHub releases, blog entries and TILs https://t.co/Eve7FOrwYKpic.twitter.com/oJPXLtFdgM
— Simon Willison (@simonw) July 10, 2020Serverless functions can also be used to dynamically generate information (for example your current Spotify activity):
I embedded a @Spotify Now Playing widget in my @github profile README!
It's an SVG rendered on the fly via @vercel serverless function, included in the README via <img> tag.
Supremely over-engineered, but I discovered lots of fun hacks in the process.https://t.co/Z8TBE9WxRypic.twitter.com/wdKw0maPKp
— Nate Moore (@n_moore) July 12, 2020It's an SVG rendered on the fly via @vercel serverless function, included in the README via <img> tag.
Supremely over-engineered, but I discovered lots of fun hacks in the process.https://t.co/Z8TBE9WxRypic.twitter.com/wdKw0maPKp
I'm a huge proponent that folks should maintain a website they have complete ownership over (even if it's a no-code website solution) but this is tempting..
Windows server 2019 remote desktop services without domain names. I just created my @github profile README as well with a bunch of badges. Md file type. This is really a brilliant idea. We may no longer need to maintain our personal website. We can write blogs as issues, manage Wiki and task board, free traffic analytics and CI/CD. https://t.co/zSXZKT6a20pic.twitter.com/mK9OWXG9iH
— Yuan Tang (@TerryTangYuan) July 10, 2020hey, so we heard ya & are trying out a thing where you CAN have a readme on your @github profile.. @mikekavouras built it btw! re: https://t.co/UC6q3qHjjRpic.twitter.com/kB0kafgovY
— kathy ☁️ (@pifafu) May 27, 2020I've been inspired by the creative READMEs I've seen so far and am looking forward to seeing all kinds of profiles in the upcoming months.
This article was published on July 11, 2020.