** UPDATE ** ~ The Perfect Guide To Actionable Programming & Thank You ~

[Claira]

Thanks for the few answers, though those few were very Helpful. The problem
was that some people (even after 4 or more years of university), especially
including almost all beginners, do not know how to start building something
that does something helpful for soceity and everyone around them -- and
this is yet to be resolved.

I read a whole bunch of reviews of the learning resources I linked to last
month. Here's one I Love -- "There should be exaggerated claims of ultimate
learning outcomes without evidence"[1] My response, attached with the
answers below for reference: When wonderful talents do things like
kickstarter.com/projects/1369857650/real-python-for-web-development-featuring-web2py<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1369857650/real-python-for-web-development-featuring-web2py>--
I wonder about what is even more significant -- "Is it effective? Does
it solve the problem?" When I (and others far newer than me) have a serious
problem like this, you know, we care very much for accurate and reliable
data. When people say "Learn Python the Hardway is probably the best
resource you listed.. [and] you *will *learn the material.." when clearly
it doesn't meet standards: "I have seeen plenty of stackoverflow and
student questions about it. In short, it's horrible." I start to wonder
about the reliability of their judgement, and how partial they really are.
Even if "A friend of mine wrote the course" is not factor we care about.
Maybe hardway was the highest Quality resource out of those (I personally
liked the MIT videos from what I've seen). So maybe, but best in the room
with a low ceiling isn't very good. I try really really hard not to touch
objects of low quality (<4.9 stars)
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Python-Mark-Lutz/dp/0596158106

I've been trying to learn programming for 8 years, so I'm a great
canidiate. So Michael, I would gladly give you any feedback on the
usability of your product anytime you ask :)

[1] http://blog.oreillyschool.com/2011/12/my-thoughts-on-codecademy.html



On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Philipp Hagemeister <phihag at phihag.de>
 wrote:

> > http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
> I have never used that myself, but I have seeen plenty of stackoverflow
> and student questions about it. In short, it's horrible.
>
> The book mostly consists of basic Python programs, and beginners often
> fail to grasp even the most basic structures demonstrated, mainly
> because they're not explained. The book has some of the easy-to-approach
> informality of, say, the Head First ones, but fails to contain the the
> actual explanations for it.
>
> (And I have no idea why one would start with Python 2.x, given that
> everything's strange in there - instead of relying on the intuitive
> grasp that both "a" and "ä" are single character strings, and that print
> is a function like any other, they have to work with a lot of magic and
> hand-waving)
>
> - Philipp
>


On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Mark Janssen <dreamingforward at gmail.com>
 wrote:

> Sorry, I gave you the wrong book (a different Lutz book).  The correct
> title is _Programming Python_, by Mark Lutz.  It's like 1600 pages and
> is application focused.
>
> Cheers!
> mark
>



On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 7:40 AM, Michael Herman <hermanmu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Claira,
>
> I understand how hard it can be. Learn Python the Hardway is probably the
> best resource you listed. It's a bit unorganized, but you *will *learn
> the material if you go through all the exercises and homework problems.
>
> That said, the author does dive into some areas that are not really
> necessary for beginners, which is a problem with most Python books. Check
> out http://www.realpython.com/. It's one of the best resources out there.
> A friend of mine wrote the course. Right now, I am in the process of
> writing a companion course called Real Python for the Web, where you learn
> how to develop websites. So, you would start with the first course to learn
> the syntax and then you could move onto the second course to learn web
> development.
>
> The Kickstarter is live for the second course - http://kck.st/VQj8hq
>
> There is a special right now where you can get both courses for $25 on the
> Kickstarter. Plus, once I hit $15k, which should be in the next few days, I
> will hit a stretch goal for making video tutorials for the first course.
>
> Anyway, sorry to plug my product - but I feel your pain, which is why Real
> Python was developed in the first place: Less syntax and theory, more
> coding and learning. Learning by doing.
>
> Let me know if you have any more questions.
>
> Best,
>
> Michael
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 2:08 AM, Claira <waveclaira at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The problem: I've done reading (like on quora), and it seems lots of
>> beginners (and I know first-hand for me), and even for those that have done
>> 4 years at university -- that they say they don't know how to build
>> something after all the theory and stuff. Even though I'm not going to be a
>> programmer, in the future, there may be something that would need
>> programming, so learning what's needed is a good thing. For example, I
>> thought you could just wave leapmotion.com and it just works, but it's
>> still 2013. On quora, they say that you need to code for it to actually do
>> things. Could someone who is good at it rank these sources (or provide a
>> good one) on how well they solve the problem?
>>
>> http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
>> http://girldevelopit.com/materials
>> https://developers.google.com/edu/python/
>> https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.1x/
>> https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101
>> https://www.udacity.com/course/cs262
>> http://anh.cs.luc.edu/python/hands-on/3.1/handsonHtml/
>> https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/tutorials/programming-basics
>> http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python
>> http://www.learnpython.org
>>
>> I got rid of a whole bunch that I thought were really really bad like
>> http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-Programmer%27s_Tutorial_for_Python_2.6
>>
>> Really bored really fast. I'm not sure what helpful things I'll like to
>> build anymore ='(
>>
>> I'm not subscribed to the list anymore (can't keep up with it, and don't
>> understand anything). Please cc me :)
>>
>> --
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>>
>>
>

>
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