suggestions between these two books

[Alex Martelli]

Micah Elliott <mde at micah.elliott.name> wrote:

> On Oct 26, John Salerno wrote:
> > Hi all. I'm fairly new to programming and I thought I'd like to try
> > Python. I'm trying to decide between these two books:
> > 
> > Learning Python (O'Reilly)
> > Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional (APress)
> 
> Consider first reading the tutorial.  If you prefer to read from paper
> there is a PDF version
> <http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.2/download.html>.

...but both of the quoted books have added value.

Well, I don't actually KNOW that about the APress one, since my good
friend Magnus Hetland didn't think of sending me a review copy (hint,
hint, Magnus, if you want any more recommendations;-), but its
predecessor "Pratical Python" was good indeed.

 
> There is also the "Python in a Nutshell" book which only covers Python
> 2.2 but has a very concise language intro, and will become an
> invaluable reference.  I wish I had started with this book; then I
> wouldn't have needed to buy some of the others.

Why, thanks!  I'm working on a new edition to cover 2.3 and 2.4 (and
perhaps 2.5 by the time I'll be done, as progress is being quite slow --
as uber technical lead at Google, I'm pretty busy these days!-), but I
do agree that the current edition is still quite useful.


Alex