newbie : books on python

[jhefferon at my-deja.com]

In article <6D8A17398E28D3119F860090274DD7DB4B3D37 at pces.cadlab.it>,
  Alex Martelli <Alex.Martelli at think3.com> wrote:
... talking about _Programming Python_ (the O'Reilly book)
> OTOH, I'd give a miss, if I were you -- I found it chaotic to the
> point that it turned me off Python for a while, and when I mentioned
> the fact recently on this list/newsgroup, most respondents seemed
> to agree with this evaluation.
I also find this book enraging, not so much to read (although the
incessant Python pom-pom waving *is* tedious) as to refer to.  The
editor who allowed an author to start in the middle --- the Tutorial
is an appendix at the back of the book --- should be slapped silly.
And material isn't necessarily located near other material to which
it relates.  And the index is ... disappointing.  Etc.

However, it *is* comprehensive, in the sense that you would have to be
quite advanced before you got beyond this book.  I do find that when I'm
stuck it is the book in which I eventually find the answer.

Jim Hefferon


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