Best book on Python?
Ian Bolton
(I looked at the FAQ and the answer to this was very old, so I am asking
directly.)
I am based in the UK and have read about a quarter of a borrowed copy of
Programming Python 1st edition. Now that I am back at uni and no longer
have access to the other book, I am gonna have to buy one. I've looked at
Programming Python 2nd edition and it looks good, but is it the best one out
for an beginner-intermediate programmer? (My Python experience is limited
to about 10 weeks worth of programming.) Also, where's the cheapest place
to get hold of PP2, or whatever you recommend?
Cheers,
Ian
Don O'Donnell
Hi Ian,
If you already are familiar with the basic concepts of programming and
don't need a lot of hand-holding, the best Python book, in my opinion,
is David Beazley's "Python Essential Reference". Be sure to get the
second edition. It covers the basic language and standard library
without a lot of excess filler. It's a great reference book, easy to
tote around, and if you don't need a lot of examples and commentary it
also make a good tutorial, at least it's how I learned the language.
I have the first edition of programming Python (a gift) but haven't
really used it much. It seems to spend a lot of time on showing how to
apply Python to solving typical software design problems, which may be
helpful to you, and which you won't get from "PER".
Personally, I try to avoid the thousand page plus tombs that are
cluttering the market these days, their information density is just so
low that I waste too much time trying to get through them. But, of
course, you may feel differently.
Bruce Eckle is writing a "Thinking in Python" book. I don't think it's
been published yet, but it may be available for downloading on the net.
His "Thinking in Java" (also downloadable) is one of the best on Java,
so I'm looking forward to reading his take on Python.
Also, as a general rule, you can't do too badly with books published by
O'Reilly or Wronx.
A cheap place to buy computer books is www.bookpool.com. You can
usually get 30 to 40% discounts there. However I'm not sure if they
ship to the UK.
Cheers,
Don
Joseph C. Kopec
comprehensive. I like it so much I have been lugging it on my commute
for the past month despite its mass. If you have used Python at all on
a daily basis, you should have sufficient background (if not, Learning
Python by the same author -- Mark Lutz -- is an excellent beginner text).
Paul Winkler
>I found PP2E to be an excellent resource -- well written and
>comprehensive. I like it so much I have been lugging it on my commute
>for the past month despite its mass. If you have used Python at all on
>a daily basis, you should have sufficient background (if not, Learning
>Python by the same author -- Mark Lutz -- is an excellent beginner text).
I started with Learning Python and highly recommend it. It's not by
any means comprehensive, but I found that once you finish part I
(which introduces all the key parts of the language in a clear,
straightforward way), you've got a good solid foundation. Part II
covers the most commonly used parts of the standard library, and you
can skip around depending on what you find interesting. Beyond that, I
haven't found any need for additional python books - I just refer to
the documentation, especially the library reference.
--PW
Tim Hammerquist
[ snip ]
> I am based in the UK and have read about a quarter of a borrowed copy of
> Programming Python 1st edition. Now that I am back at uni and no longer
> have access to the other book, I am gonna have to buy one. I've looked at
> Programming Python 2nd edition and it looks good, but is it the best one out
> for an beginner-intermediate programmer? (My Python experience is limited
> to about 10 weeks worth of programming.) Also, where's the cheapest place
> to get hold of PP2, or whatever you recommend?
Excellent learning text:
Learning Python, Mark Lutz, ORA
Excellent reference:
Python Essential Reference, Beazley?, New Riders (2nd Ed.
recommended)
I wouldn't waste money on Prog. Python (ORA). It's a diluted "Learning
Perl" that doesn't really do anything with Python except
Tkinter...unless this is really what you want.
HTH
--
Emacs is a nice OS - but it lacks a good text editor.
That's why I am using Vim.
-- Anonymous
Alex Martelli
news:3BA92159...@home.com...
...
> > Programming Python 2nd edition and it looks good, but is it the best one
out
> > for an beginner-intermediate programmer? (My Python experience is
limited
> don't need a lot of hand-holding, the best Python book, in my opinion,
> is David Beazley's "Python Essential Reference". Be sure to get the
Great book, but it's not really targeting beginner-intermediate.
> I have the first edition of programming Python (a gift) but haven't
The second one is MUCH better IMHO. The first one managed to turn
me off Python for months. The second one is enjoyable & instructive.
> Personally, I try to avoid the thousand page plus tombs that are
> cluttering the market these days, their information density is just so
> low that I waste too much time trying to get through them. But, of
A very good general rule. But I think that the best publishers
need to be judged by different standards: O'Reilly, New Riders,
Addison-Wesley just don't publish books with negligible information
density IMHO. Prentice-Hall or Wrox *rarely* do, again IMHO. If
you start going for SAMS, Osborne &c, then I do agree the 1000+pages
books are rarely worthwhile.
> Bruce Eckle is writing a "Thinking in Python" book. I don't think it's
> been published yet, but it may be available for downloading on the net.
> His "Thinking in Java" (also downloadable) is one of the best on Java,
> so I'm looking forward to reading his take on Python.
Notice that "Thinking in Java" *IS* well into the "1000+ pages"
region. So, it would seem you do agree that your condemnation
of low information density for such books is in actual fact more
selective than what you express above:-).
> A cheap place to buy computer books is www.bookpool.com. You can
> usually get 30 to 40% discounts there. However I'm not sure if they
> ship to the UK.
Considering shipping (to Italy), I usually find amazon.co.uk cheapest
(US suppliers may turn out cheaper for some largish orders shipped
by slow means, when you order books you don't mind waiting for).
Although their webpages' attempts to sell me toys, CD's, software,
fish and chips and whatever else BUT books are starting to get on
my nerves (this holds for all branches of Amazon -- unless they get
back to their core competence of bookselling, they ARE eventually
going to lose my business, and not mine alone I think).
Alex
Alex Martelli
news:slrn9qimib....@roaddog.armsnet...
> On Thu, 20 Sep 2001 02:06:30 GMT, Joseph C. Kopec <kop...@att.net> wrote:
> >I found PP2E to be an excellent resource -- well written and
> >comprehensive. I like it so much I have been lugging it on my commute
> >for the past month despite its mass. If you have used Python at all on
> >a daily basis, you should have sufficient background (if not, Learning
> >Python by the same author -- Mark Lutz -- is an excellent beginner text).
>
> I started with Learning Python and highly recommend it. It's not by
> any means comprehensive, but I found that once you finish part I
> (which introduces all the key parts of the language in a clear,
> straightforward way), you've got a good solid foundation. Part II
It's not WIDE in its coverage, but it's DEEP for what it does
cover -- personally, I like that. For a more shallow but broader
coverage, also well written, readable, and appropriate for a
beginner/intermediate reader, "Quick Python Book" isn't bad either.
Alex
Simon Brunning
> Also, where's the cheapest place to get hold of PP2, or whatever you
> recommend?
<http://www.comparisonmagic.com/>.
FWIW, I find *both* 'Programming Python' and 'Python Essential Reference' to
be worth having. The second really is essential. The first was good for me
because it taught me about several areas which I didn't know much about -
GUI programming, network programming (both client & server-side), and so on.
If you are already familiar with these areas, you might find yourself
ploughing through a lot of stuff that you already know.
Cheers,
Simon Brunning
TriSystems Ltd.
sbru...@trisystems.co.uk
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Heiko Wundram
> I found PP2E to be an excellent resource -- well written and
> comprehensive. I like it so much I have been lugging it on my commute
> for the past month despite its mass. If you have used Python at all on
> a daily basis, you should have sufficient background (if not, Learning
> Python by the same author -- Mark Lutz -- is an excellent beginner text).
I can only agree on Programming Python, second edition. What has been very
helpful to me has been:
Python Standard Library by Fredrick Lundh (also published by O'Reilly).
This book covers pretty much all that's covered in the Library Reference, but
extends it in several ways: While I think the Library Reference has much too
many descriptions of singular functions in modules but gives much too few
examples of how to use them, this book does the opposite: It just consists of
lists and lists of source code that demonstrate common usage of most of the
modules of the Python Standard Library.
Both references add up for me: When I need specific information I look into
the Library Reference, when I need examples (pre-written code) I look into
the book.
Shouldn't be too expensive either, I got it for ca. $14.
--
Yours sincerely,
Heiko Wundram
Janusz A. Urbanowicz
> I am based in the UK and have read about a quarter of a borrowed copy of
> Programming Python 1st edition. Now that I am back at uni and no longer
> have access to the other book, I am gonna have to buy one. I've looked at
> Programming Python 2nd edition and it looks good, but is it the best one out
> for an beginner-intermediate programmer? (My Python experience is limited
> to about 10 weeks worth of programming.) Also, where's the cheapest place
> to get hold of PP2, or whatever you recommend?
I'm quite contended from having "Core Python Programming" by Wesley Chum. The
book has two parts - a solid tour around the language, then a couple of
sections on actual tasks like socket programming, TkInter, Web programming,
REs etc.
Alex
--
Janusz A. Urbanowicz | ALEX3-RIPE | SF-Framling | Thawte Web Of Trust Notary
Gdy daję biednym chleb, nazywają mnie świętym. Gdy pytam,
dlaczego biedni nie mają chleba, nazywają mnie komunistą. - abp. Helder Camara
Kemp Randy-W18971
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Brunning [mailto:SBru...@trisystems.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 3:11 AM
To: pytho...@python.org
Cc: 'Ian Bolton'
Subject: RE: Best book on Python?
> From: Ian Bolton [SMTP:bolt...@cs.REMOVE_THIS.man.ac.uk]
> Also, where's the cheapest place to get hold of PP2, or whatever you
> recommend?
Janos Blazi
an afternoon I could start working in the evening. I still think that the
material is very well chosen and the presentation is precise and enjoyable.
So in my opinion it is the best book on Python. My other Python book is
"Python and Tkinter Programming" by John Grayson and though it contains a
lot of information, virtually everything you need to use Tkinter, I wish he
would give more explanations instead of examples.
J.B.
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Rodney Somerstein
seen anyone mention Python 2.1 Bible by Dave Brueck and Stephen Tanner.
This largish book seems to offer a fairly comprehensive survey of Python.
While the book doesn't truly seem aimed at beginners, it does cover a
pretty wide variety of topics including Tkinter, wxPython, curses,
playing sounds, processing images, parsing XML, various Internet
protocols, image processing, multi-threading, writing extension modules,
embedding Python, NumPy, distributing/deploying applications and a lot
more.
On the downside, the authors seem to ignore the existence of the
Macintosh and all of their cross-platform discussions focus on Unix and
Windows. Also, the cover of the book says that it "Includes a complete
Python Language Reference." Other than the first few chapters which cover
the core language fairly well, I don't see anything that resembles a
language reference. It seems that there are other books which do this
better.
Does anyone else have any opinions on this book?
-Rodney
Kenneth Tsang
http://www.zope.com/Developers/Books
KT
"Janos Blazi" <jbl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3baa3...@news.newsgroups.com...
Don Tuttle
Don
Boyd Roberts
Python
Essential Reference
2nd Ed
David M. Beazley
ISBN 0-7357-1091-0
it's some 400 pages, of which 100 deal with the language
while the rest deals with various modules.
Mats Wichmann
wrote:
:Bruce Eckle is writing a "Thinking in Python" book. I don't think it's
:been published yet, but it may be available for downloading on the net.
:His "Thinking in Java" (also downloadable) is one of the best on Java,
:so I'm looking forward to reading his take on Python.
Sigh. I think the best way to capture the state of this "book" is
that Bruce would /like/ to be writing it. He's not even got his
Thinking in Patterns book on paper yet - the model is to develop it
with internet feedback, seminars, etc and only when he feels it's
ready, commit it to paper. The web editions of Thinking in C++ and
Thinking in Java continue to be available.
See his site for more details (bruceeckel.com).
Mats Wichmann
Ron Stephens
Ron Stephens
Alex Martelli
> I would buy five copies of any book by Alex martelli, sight unseen.
QUITE kind of you, thanks...!
> Don Tuttle wrote:
>
>> Speaking of books Alex, how is yours coming along?
Why do you think I've almost disappeared from this forum since almost 2
weeks...? Now I know how the White Rabbit felt in (Disney's version of)
Alice in Wonderland in the first scenes he appears in...:-).
Alex