[oclug] Books for learning python

[Dave Edwards]

On Thu, 04 Jan 2001, you Dan York wrote:
<snip>
>    
>    For a complete newbie who hasn't worked with any programming
>    language, I was quite please with SAMS "Teach Yourself 
>    Python in 24 Hours" by Ivan Van Laningham, ISBN 0-672-31735-4,
>    list price $37.96CAN.  The author's writing style is a bit 
>    chatty at times, but overall I found it a good intro [1].  It
>    does cover basic python, object-oriented programming and then
>    GUI programming with Tkinter. This last part was quite fun for
>    me (I extended one of the examples into a fun little app that
>    provides a scale for converting Celsius into Fahrenheit,
>    something my brain still needs me to do.)  There is a web site
>    for the book which includes a helpful errata page:
>    
>     http://www.pauahtun.org/TYPython/

I have to disagree _sharply here_.  I have the SAMS book, and I think it
stinks.  The author  spends a lot of narrative time on his hobby horses: 
Mayan Calendrical Lore, calendrical theory in general, and number theory. 
Learning a programming language can be difficult enough without trying to
think about abstractions with abstractions.  Programming books usually
conform to the practice of framing a language's logic in *concrete* terms:
 the CD library, the fruit store, etc.

 >    
>    The second book is one I found quite useful for someone coming
>    over to python from other programming languages. It is 
>    "The Quick Python Book" by Daryl Harms and Kenneth McDonald,
>    published by Manning, ISBN 1-884777-74-0, list $57.95CAN.  It assumes 
>    you already know programming concepts, constructs, etc. from other
>    languages and focuses on giving you the basics you need to 
>    transition to python.  It covers a wide range of features 
>    and gets into some fairly advanced topics.  The Tkinter section
>    here is very short (but Manning also covers a large book 
>    specifically on python and Tkinter), but it does get into 
>    a whole host of advanced things that the SAMS book doesn't,
>    including interacting with C & C++.
>    It, too, has a web site at:
>    
>      http://www.manning.com/Harms/

I've read good reviews of this book.  The one that got me started was
O'Reilly's _Learning Python_, by Lutz and Ascher.