Python Books for 2002

[Alex Martelli]

"Michael Hudson" <mwh21 at cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:m37l0vtka2.fsf at atrus.jesus.cam.ac.uk...
    [snip]
> You can actually buy "Firewalls for Dummies" or "Computer Security for
> Dummies" (or something like that) which isn't much better, IMHO.

Oh come on, y'all, lighten up a bit -- the 'for Dummies' marketing
ideas may be too cute, but some of the books themselves are pretty
good.  Kantar's "Bridge for Dummies", for example, is an excellent
introductory text on contract bridge (the peculiar graphics of the
example hands, used instead of the usual way to typeset hands, is
the biggest objection I've seen raised to it -- Eddie Kantar, of course,
is a great player, many times world-champion, and one of the best
writers on the game of bridge).  Even in the technical field, I used
to recommend a book in the 'for Dummies' series on the Win32 API
as the clearest introduction I knew to the subject (of course, some
undummy wiseguy will now quip that nobody BUT dummies could
ever be interested in the Win32 API -- but, hey, one can make pretty
interesting and smart amounts of money from a good competence in
them, you know:-).


Alex