I sincerely hope that this version is better than the first edition, although anything short of a random re-arrangement of pages would serve as an improvement. The first edition actually delayed my initial use of Python by about a year and a half. I had heard wonderful things about the language so I figured, "Ah, an O'Reilly book!" Big mistake.
Endless bits about immutability, without hints as to why I ought to care. I can appreciate the use of the interactive prompt now, but to start with it seems... s
Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language by Mark Summerfield is better IMHO.
I gave up in the middle of Learning Python 3rd Ed. One of the things I absolutely hated about Learning Python is the author continually telling you about X will be covered later in chapter Y. There is a LOT of that. That and half-way through the book, I still couldn't do anything simple as he hadn't even talked about for loops yet. Too much detail on the finer points of data types and too little "quick start". I got bored with this book.
I don't doubt that there is a lot of great info in that book. It just isn't organized very well at all. My guess is the 4th ed. is changed to reflect Python 3.x. If it were reorganized, it would probably be really good.
If not this book, care to share an alternative recommendation or two?
Well, I can't disagree with the grandparent's very nice flame, but why not start with Guido's tutorial?
http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ [python.org]
Between that and the library reference, I was up and running making useful scripts in an afternoon at work one day, but I had previous programming experience. But since this book isn't for people like that, who is it for? Only people I can think of are language lawyers, and there's a free source for that as well! http://docs.python.org/reference/index.html [python.org]
Actually, I should have also recommended the Python Cookbook even though it's quite old and you can probably pick it up in a bargain bin (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001674). It's kind of nice for the quick and dirty examples if you also refer to the language reference and tutorial to understand what the authors are doing. I.e., it's not a very good introduction to the language alone.
But the best part is the strange looks you get from non-computer people when it's sitting on your shelf!
Better Than First Edition? (Score:5, Insightful)
I sincerely hope that this version is better than the first edition, although anything short of a random re-arrangement of pages would serve as an improvement. The first edition actually delayed my initial use of Python by about a year and a half. I had heard wonderful things about the language so I figured, "Ah, an O'Reilly book!" Big mistake.
Endless bits about immutability, without hints as to why I ought to care. I can appreciate the use of the interactive prompt now, but to start with it seems ... s
Re:Better Than First Edition? (Score:2)
If not this book, care to share an alternative recommendation or two?
Re:Better Than First Edition? (Score:4, Informative)
I gave up in the middle of Learning Python 3rd Ed. One of the things I absolutely hated about Learning Python is the author continually telling you about X will be covered later in chapter Y. There is a LOT of that. That and half-way through the book, I still couldn't do anything simple as he hadn't even talked about for loops yet. Too much detail on the finer points of data types and too little "quick start". I got bored with this book.
I don't doubt that there is a lot of great info in that book. It just isn't organized very well at all. My guess is the 4th ed. is changed to reflect Python 3.x. If it were reorganized, it would probably be really good.
Re:Better Than First Edition? (Score:4, Insightful)
If not this book, care to share an alternative recommendation or two?
Well, I can't disagree with the grandparent's very nice flame, but why not start with Guido's tutorial? http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ [python.org] Between that and the library reference, I was up and running making useful scripts in an afternoon at work one day, but I had previous programming experience. But since this book isn't for people like that, who is it for? Only people I can think of are language lawyers, and there's a free source for that as well! http://docs.python.org/reference/index.html [python.org]
Re: (Score:2)
But the best part is the strange looks you get from non-computer people when it's sitting on your shelf!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the tips guys. /wanders off to do some brisk trade with amazon...