Python Newbie Suggestions

[Stephen Lewitowski]

garcigal at gmail.com wrote:
> I'm a mechanical engineer with little experience programming. I've
> used C++ and machine language for getting micro-controllers to work
> and thats about it. I work allot with software developers at my job
> and can read C++ code pretty good (ie. I understand whats going on).
> Does anyone have any good tips or resources for someone interested in
> learning PYTHON.  This is purely for hobby purposes and I'd like to
> expose my kids to a programing language too. If any one has any
> helpful books, tips or suggestions please let me know.  I have
> Windows, MAC and Linux box's at my house but I'm a primarily a MAC
> user.
> 

I was once a newbie too. I started with the Python Tutorial which is on 
the Python Website and found it to be a good starting point.

http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html

Have a go with this and see how you get on.

There are lots of resources at http://www.python.org, including 
distributions of the latest version of the python interpreter, which you 
should install (if you have not already) before attempting the tutorials.