Learning Python, 3rd Edition by Mark Lutz
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Book Reviews of Learning Python, 3rd Edition
Book Review: Great Intro to Python
Summary: 5 Stars
I probably wouldn't recommend this book as your 'First intro to programming...' or anything, but for anyone with moderate exposure to programming or scripting that really wants an indepth introduction to Python, this book is great. (and it would work for a dedicated beginner; it isn't terribly advanced, it just doesn't show enough programs IMHO to suit a beginner that wants to start 'doing stuff').
If you aren't sure you want to learn Python, go work through a web tutorial first and make sure you like it enough to commit to such a large tome (the one at [...] is a fine intro). That's what I did. When I wanted more, I turned to this book and could not be happier.
For serving its purpose though, I give it Five Stars.
It could have used some more examples, but that is what 'Programming Python' is for...
It could have used some reference lists, but that is what 'Python Pocket Reference' is for...
(I wouldn't want to have to carry this thing around with me for reference anyway!)
As far as a very thorough discussion of the basic language features of Python 3 (and 2.6, with differences pointed out), I felt that I got more than my money's worth out of this book (and went out and bought the other two companion books after reading this one and enjoying it so much).
I feel that I got a more thorough introduction to Python from this book than I received from a semester long C++ class with a slightly larger textbook, and I was able to go back and easily rework all my C++ assignments in Python after I finished (granted, Python made some but not all of them trivial). And it also left we well prepared to knock out a number of problems on [...] once I finished (granted a lot of them test your math more than your programming, but still).
After finishing those tasks, I am looking forward to reading through 'Programming Python' and getting a better introduction to the library.
Book Review: The Longest Short-way to Python
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a top-down learner this book is not for you. You can safely pick "Dive into Python".
However, if you are the bottom-up type, you will not regret. While the Python slogan promises "one way to do it", Mark Lutz will show you four, and explore every detail, like complex list comprehensions, closures and the diamond inheritance pattern. This is why you will wait 200 pages (exploring data types) until the introduction of the first Python statement, and 200 pages more for the first script.
But if you cross the details, you will get excellent understandings of the core Python logic, which will save you countless debugging hours in the future.
The OO part alone worth the entire book. It's going from the very basics of OO programming up to elementary design patterns and some advanced OO implementation issues in Python.
One last caution: although 600 pages, this book should be really read cover to cover. It's a true tutorial, which gradually develops the major concepts (sequences, assignments, references, objects, namespaces etc) from the ground up, with (midterm?) exercises. Give yourself a few hours to really learn, exercise your brain (and fully grasp 100 ways to silently override your variables with namespace mistakes). It's a great book.
Book Review: Strong book for Learning Python
Summary: 5 Stars
Overall, I think this is a very good book for learning Python. I'm an expert C/C++ programmer and found that the book was well written and seems to do a good job of bringing people up to speed on Python whether they were relatively new to programming or already intimately familiar with other languages. There are many places in the book that compare concepts to other languages which is helpful to drive home points about the language in addition to the numerous hands on examples in the book.
There were only a few areas that seemed to be slightly too verbose or repetitive (to me) that I'm sure would be more important for those less familiar to programming in general or the OOP concepts covered in the book.
Another part of the book that is very strong is that it does a great job of discussing the evolution of the Python language throughout the book and points out items that puts the history and features of the language into perspective. This is also very practical information relative understanding what you might run into relative to existing code bases that may be developed for differing versions of the language specifications.
Book Review: Wonderful Manual
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a wonderful introduction and reference manual to Python 2.5+. Starting with no understanding of the language itself, in eight hours of reading (over half the book) I managed to learn everything I needed to know to create a useful application to monitor my corporation's client networks. Two days after that, I wrote a GUI for the same program. Since then, the entire Operations department has been using my program to monitor our networks.
The book gives you the basics up front and gives the harder things (object-oriented programing, exception handling, etc.) near the back of the book. In the first 400 pages, I found everthing I needed to make my program work as expected. While this book is great for learning and reference, it is best paired with the [...] website, which gives all the possible methods of the standard library. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a basic programming knowledge and a desire to learn the language.
Book Review: Learning Python - A Review
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent book for anyone new to both programming and the Python programming language.
If you want to learn how to program and are unsure where to begin, this book is definitely worth considering, both for it's concise, clear explanation of Python and programming concepts in general, and because the language Python is itself clear and concise.
Pros:
-Clear, concise
-Well written, decent pace
-Good intro for non-programmers
-Leads nicely into Programming Python and Python Cookbook
-Python itself is easy to learn, clear, and yet still powerful and cross-platform
Cons:
-Tends to drag in the beginning, spending too much time going over the details of the language instead of diving right into some useful code.
-NOT for programmers who have other language(s) under their belts. Consider Programming Python instead.