[Tutor] Python book question

[Magnus Lycka]

At Mon, 24 Mar 2003 10:29:05 -0500, "Pilot Wingnut" 
<wingnut_nc@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I've read a review on amazon about a new Python book "The Complete Python
>Training Course" and it sounds like it covers everything. And I know there
>are other books out there. Is it even worth it investing in a book ?

Books are always good investments! Haven't read Deitel though.
On a daily basis, I almost exclusively use the standard on-line
docs for reference. For learning new fields it might be good to
read through a book though. And with a company in a country where
taxes are very high, tax deductable books are a cheap way of
learning.

>I'm not much of a book collector or reader,

I am! :) Books are good. Cover your walls with books and
you will have better sound and thermal insulation, and you
won't have to buy expensive paintings etc. ;) You might
also learn something!

>so what you guys suggest ?

There is no "one size fits all" solution here. People are
obviously different.

For pure beginners, there are a few options:

Learning Python by Lutz & Ascher.  ~350 pp.
Well liked, but s bit dated? (1999) Covers very
little except core python 1.5.2. Any 2nd ed. on
the way?

Alan Gauld's Learn to Program Using Python. ~270 pp.
For complete newbies to programming. Author hangs on
this mailing list. There's a lot on his web site.

Chris Fehily's "Python Visual Quickstart Guide". ~410 pp.
It's also a a beginners book, and it's inexpensive and
has a lot of small examples. Also just core language.

Finally, there is the paper version of "How to Think Like
a Computer Scientist" http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/
for a more academic approach.

If you want more than just the core language, and have some
prior programming skills, some other books are more relevant:

A book I just started to read which seems excellent (I already
found things I have really missed...) is the Python Cookbook,
a very good compilation of the online Python Cookbook at
Activestate. Really good! This is much more about learning how
to really solve problems with python than about the basics of
syntax etc. Besides canned solutions to particular problems it
will teach you a lot about how to use Python in a clever way.

Hammond & Robinson: Python Programming on Win32 if you want to
access Excel etc from python or vice versa.

Holden's Python Web Programming (~690) is good if you want
something focused on network programming, databases and XML.

Harms & McDonald The Quick Python book is also from 1999, but
is says more about Jython, GUIs, Windows etc. ~420 pp.

I haven't read Wesley Chuns Core Python, but I think it's
similar to the Quick Python book.

Finally, a more recent book in the same range is Hetland's
Practical Python. ~620 pp. I just got it, so I haven't had
time to read it yet. It looks good though, and it covers a
lot besides the core language: XML, ReportLab, Networking,
GUIs etc.

I haven't read Alex Martelli's Python in a Nutshell yet, but
it's probably good.

Some like Lutz: Programming Python, but I don't. I don't have
the second edition though, and I'm sure it's better.

There's also Brueck & Tanner's Python 2.1 Bible. I got that
on CD-ROM with the Zope Bible, but I haven't really read it.
It's ~770 pp and covers a wide range. It actually covers some
important things I haven't found in other books, like i18n and
deployment (distutils, py2exe etc). It also covers interesting
things like networking, XML, Extension/Embedding and GUIs with
Tkinter and wxPython, but I just browsed it...

Beazleys Python Essential Reference is a good book, but it's
really very close to the normal Python Module Reference in scope.

Personally, I would rather support someone who is active in the
Python community, either here at tutor, or at comp.lang.python
or in some important Open Source project, than spend my money
on an author I don't know. Most of the guys above have useful
web sites and contribute to the further development of python
and the python community.


-- 
Magnus Lycka, Thinkware AB
Alvans vag 99, SE-907 50 UMEA, SWEDEN
phone: int+46 70 582 80 65, fax: int+46 70 612 80 65
http://www.thinkware.se/  mailto:magnus@thinkware.se