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In this section, we're going to look at 
input and output in Python.

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Input/Output, I/O, just means getting data into a 
program, and getting it out again. 

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We've already seen one way to enter data into our 
programs from the keyboard, using input. 

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Often, we'll want to store that data more permanently 
– that's where disk files come in handy. 

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This section will start with the 
basics of how text files work. 

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You'll learn about what the file pointer is, and 
how it keeps track of where you are in the file. 

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Python makes working with text files very easy. 
It's rare that you need to worry about the file pointer – 

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 you can treat a text file like a list.
We'll have a look at binary data files, 

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later in the section, and see how 
we can choose which values to read. 

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We'll also see various ways 
to write data to a file. 

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I'm going to start this section with a very 
brief discussion about files and paths. 

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This will be a brief discussion, to 
introduce some of the terminology 

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used when referring to files on disk.
It won't be an in-depth course on files and paths. 

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If this is something you're not familiar with, 
you'll want to learn more about how files are stored, 

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on your operating system.
Google for something like, 

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what is a file path, if you're not 
familiar with them, and need to know more. 

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It's very hard (if not impossible) 
to learn how to program a computer, 

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if you're not comfortable using one.
So we'll start this section with a brief 

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explanation of files, directories and 
paths. If you already understand paths, 

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skip the next few videos. And I'll see 
you in whichever video you watch next.