Best Resources to Learn Python

[David Edgerton, Jr.]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to learn Python and I'm wondering about the best way to go about picking up the language.  Are there any books or sites that the group recommends?  I have an engineering and IT background if that helps with the recommendation.  I've played a little with Twilio and Ruby and would like to do some web apps and data analysis.

Thanks.

David

[Rohit Patnaik]

I've heard good things about Learn Python the Hard Way. I also use Python Essential Reference, by David M. Beazley. The latter is more of a reference manual than a tutorial, but I've still found it helpful to have.

Rohit

[Jason Burnett]

I've heard several people recommend Learn Python the Hard Way, available online free at http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/.  I'm teaching myself using O'Reilly's Learning Python book, which is pretty good but kind of a lot of text to slog through.

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[Matt Anderson]

If you know another similar language fairly well, I like Alex Martelli's "Painless Python for Proficient Programmers" (Google IO, 2008) as a Python starting point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDgD9whDfEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7vwZ20SDzc

Also, there are many very good video talks given my Alex Martelli out there (although many are intended for intermediate or advanced audiences).  

The pyvideo.org website is a very good resource for recorded PyCon and other talks.

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Matt Anderson

[David Fawcett]

One of my favorite approaches is to pick a problem to solve and then use Python as part of the solution.

[tcpd...@gmail.com]

When I wanted to learn Python I started with:
http://www.pythonchallenge.com/

I used ipython and ipython notebook to help me out.
http://ipython.org/
http://ipython.org/notebook.html

iPython notebook helped me save and test lines of code until I got used to the interpeter. If you are starting out it's worth trying.

If you are a programmer and you know other languages sometimes I've used this site just to get an idea of what code looks like in a particular language.

http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/

Jeremy