🖥️ Week 01, Day 02 - Lecture
Reading Files the Way a Machine Does
By the end of this session, you should be able to: i) Explain what an operating system does and why Linux, macOS, and Windows organise files differently, ii) Tell an absolute path from a relative path, and create folder structure with mkdir before you need it, iii) Tell a plain-text file from a binary file by opening both in the terminal, iv) Read a CSV and a JSON file as plain text and explain what each format stores, v) Create variables, lists, and dictionaries in Python, and read a file’s contents into them.
⏰ Tuesday, 14 July 2026 | 10:00am - 1:00pm 📍 CBG.2.01 (see LSE’s 🗺️ campus map)
Yesterday afternoon you found your way around the terminal and the Linux computer you have on Nuvolos: you moved through folders with cd, read files with cat, and saved your first script in nano.
This morning we step back and ask what your computer is actually doing when it organises files into that tree, then open a few of those files to see what is really stored inside them. By the end of the session you take your first steps in Python itself.
🗣️ Lecture Overview
- How your computer organises files: operating systems, file systems on Linux, macOS, and Windows, absolute vs relative paths, and creating folder structure with
mkdir - Reading files the way a machine does: Markdown source against its rendered form, CSV and JSON as plain text, and a first look at a binary file
- First look at Python: variables, three data types, lists, dictionaries,
forloops, and reading a file’s contents in Python
🎬 Lecture Slides
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After the Lecture
You now know how your files are organised and what Python looks like from the terminal. The lab this afternoon is where you put this into practice, reading real data files in Python.
Questions?