Python books (was: RE: [Tutor] Confused about functions)

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

> 
> It looks like the book I have here is the first edition. Do you think it
> would still be useful to an aspiring python hacker, or should I wait until
> I can get a copy of the second edition?
> 

I am not directly familiar with the book, that said the biggest change from 1.4
and earlier to 1.5.x was exceptions were now supposeed to be classes instead of
strings.  If you look through the standard lib of 1.5 you can see both (NNTP is
strings for instance).  The 2.x series of python added some new features which
are cool but are also not in 1.5.x which is still the most common version. 
1.5.x python code still works without problems in 2.x.