Beginning Python (Programmer to Programmer)
by Peter C. Norton, Alex Samuel, Dave Aitel, Eric Foster-Johnson, Leonard Richardson, Jason Diamond, Aleatha Parker, Michael Roberts
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Book Summary Information
Author: Aleatha Parker, Alex Samuel, Dave Aitel, Eric Foster-Johnson, Jason Diamond, Leonard Richardson, Michael Roberts, Peter C. NortonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-08-05
ISBN: 0764596543
Number of pages: 696
Publisher: Wrox
Book Reviews of Beginning Python (Programmer to Programmer)
Book Review: Poor examples; There are much better books for learning Python
Summary: 1 Stars
I did not find this book very helpful for learning Python. First of all the book is not very informative. In each chapter, you are introduced to a new idea (e.g. lists) but you don't really learn much about it, different/creative ways to use it, or why you would want to.
Any book that purports to teach you a programming language ultimately passes or fails based on the examples it gives you in the text and the excercises it gives you at the end of each chapter. This is where the book is especially poor. There is only one example that runs throughout this book: how to make an omelet. On its own, it's not horrible. In general, program is like a recipe: you give it stuff at the begining and instructions and then you end up with a finished product (although, oddly, this analogy is never made in the book). The main problem, though, is that this is the only example. Every new idea is shown only once, in the context of this example, and many tricks that can be done with Python, but are not relevant to this example are not included in the book.
What's more, the excercizes are all keyed to the same example of making an omelet, which gets more and more ponderous with every passing chapter. Worst of all, as soon as your code no longer performs the way they describe, you're out of luck. You can no longer work through the ideas in the book and it is largely useless.
The bottom line is that there are much better books for learning Python. I would recomend getting "Learning Python" by Lutz and Ascher.
Summary of Beginning Python (Programmer to Programmer)
- This tutorial offers readers a thorough introduction to programming in Python 2.4, the portable, interpreted, object-oriented programming language that combines power with clear syntax
- Beginning programmers will quickly learn to develop robust, reliable, and reusable Python applications for Web development, scientific applications, and system tasks for users or administrators
- Discusses the basics of installing Python as well as the new features of Python release 2.4, which make it easier for users to create scientific and Web applications
- Features examples of various operating systems throughout the book, including Linux, Mac OS X/BSD, and Windows XP
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