Python?

[Chris McCann]

I need to venture into the dark side for a work project and "get to
know" Python.

Can any recovering Pythonians here recommend particularly worthwhile
books, web sites or tutorials that won't make a diehard Rubyist pull
their hair out and look for the tallest building in town for a one-way
trip?

Cheers,

Chris

[Marvin Humphrey]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 08:25:10PM -0700, Chris McCann wrote:
> Can any recovering Pythonians here recommend particularly worthwhile
> books, web sites or tutorials that won't make a diehard Rubyist pull
> their hair out and look for the tallest building in town for a one-way
> trip?

I've enjoyed "Programming in Python 3", by Mark Summerfield. It's missing the
nauseating evangelism that afflicts so many programming language books
("Learning Python", by Mark Lutz is among the worst), and it's keyed to the
experienced programmer. However, it's Python 3, which may or may not suit
your needs.

The Python core documentation also has solid language tutorials. The Python
people do a great job with documentation.

http://docs.python.org/tutorial/index.html
http://docs.python.org/py3k/tutorial/index.html

Marvin Humphrey

[Patrick Crowley]

Former Rubyist Zed Shaw wrote an interesting book on Python.

Learn Python The Hard Way:
http://learnpythonthehardway.org

... and it's only $3 in PDF form.

-- Patrick

[Kevin Clark]

The Python Essential Reference by David Beazley is quite good, fairly
complete, and covers the differences between 2 and 3. The first couple
hundred pages are a tutorial that I felt gave me my sea legs, and then
there's a good deal of topic based reference material. Vaguely
reminiscent of the pickaxe.

Kevin Clark
http://glu.ttono.us

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[Chris McCann]

Thanks, all. I'm going through the "Dive into Python" online tutorial
with Zed Shaw's "Python the Hard Way" next. Two books are also on
their way from Amazon.

Cheers,

Chris