first book about python

[Alex Martelli]

Aahz <aahz at pythoncraft.com> wrote:

> In article <1152405704.389754 at athnrd02>,
> IOANNIS MANOLOUDIS  <alien at ath.forthnet.gr> wrote:
> >
> >I want to learn python.
> >I plan to buy a book. I always find printed material more convenient than
> >reading on-line tutorials.
> >I don't know PERL or any other scripting language. I only know some BASH
> >programming. I am looking for a book which will help me get started and
> >should contain the foundations. I am not looking for the Python bible.
> >Any recommendations?
> 
> If you're willing to wait 1.5 months, _Python for Dummies_ will be the
> first book that really covers Python 2.5.  (Alex's _Python in a Nutshell_
> does cover some of Python 2.5, but there were a fair number of late
> changes that came after he needed to turn it in, most notably the
> inclusion of sqlite3.  It's also not a beginner book.)

I confirm on both scores: the Nutshell is not meant for beginners to
programming (it _may_ be used by experienced programmers whose
experience comes from other languages, but it may be a stretch even for
them, depending on what "other languages" are exactly); and, the new 2nd
edition of the Nutshell does not cover well the big additions to Python
2.5's standard library (ctypes and etree, as well as sqlite) -- it
barely _mentions_ them as late-breaking developments, with pointers to
online docs.  Stef's and Aahz's "for Dummies" will be a good book for
beginners (many people have prejudices against the whole "for Dummies"
series, perhaps exactly because of their titles!, but, really, there ARE
many good books in that series, if you can just accept the titles as
well-natured, innocuous humor!) -- I only looked at a subset of its
chapters, so I don't know in particular how well it teaches sqlite,
ctypes and etree, but the materials I _did_ look at were excellent.


Alex