the one python book

[jehugaleahsa at gmail.com]

On Aug 4, 7:23 am, "dhr" <dima.hris... at gmail.com> wrote:
> newbie question:
>
> Is there a 'K&R" type of Python book? The book that you'd better have on
> your shelf if you are going into Python?

Personally, I have two paths for you to take.

If you are a programmer already, then I would recommend that you buy
Python in a Nutshell. It is actually a very concise book for people
who just want to know what the language provides. I would actually
recommend stopping once you get to the library reference and I would
make sure look into classes. After you done with that day-long read, I
would get your hands on the newest version of "Progamming
Python" (O'Reilly). It has a lot of practical applications for Python
and it is *not* a one-day read. It is enormous and it skips around a
lot. I like it because it is doesn't necessarily stick to one topic so
you pick up a lot of tricks along the way. It gets you started off
learning some sweet c-style OS functions. If you don't know just about
everything about Python by the end of that book, I would be very
surprised.

BTW, almost all of the Nutshell books have been fabulous. They kind of
put it out there for you to suck up like a vacuum. The only failure in
my opinion is the PHP nutshell . . . Since you even know hwo K&R (good
job) is, then I assume you know how to program and are ready to skip
all the crap.

Best of luck,
Travis