up to date books?

[Magnus Lycka]

John Salerno wrote:
> hi all. are there any recommendations for an intro book to python that 
> is up-to-date for the latest version?

It depends on what kind of books you like, and of course on your
previous experience.

I think "Python: Visual QuickStart Guide" by Chris Fehily is a rather
nice beginner's book, even if it's from 2001. It's also pretty cheap.
I don't have it at hand now, but I suspect that it doesn't cover new
style classes, generators, or list (or generator) comprehensions, but
it's still a good intro.

If you like a high density book, Alex Martelli's "Python in a Nutshell"
is great, and if you like to see a bunch of recipes, "Python Cookbook,
2nd ed" is good. The cookbook recipes are also on the net, but the book
does add value to them.

> would reading a book from a year or two ago cause me to miss much?

Probably not. Most recent changes to Python, such as decorators, are
things that beginners might want to leave until later... New standard
modules, such as datetime, are covered in the standard library manual.