[Tutor] Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours book

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> Could you please sketch your impressions regarding
> Ivan Van Laningham's book "Teach Yourself Python
> in 24 Hours".

It is aimed at first time programmers but is specific 
to Python (altho he does show some comparative C/Pascal 
listings early on)

It does a good job of the basic syntax and types, a 
slightly less gooid job in the (much harder to explain) 
OO features and a basic run thru of the widgets in 
Tkinter for GUI work. I thought the latter section 
could have used less on the widgets and more on 
structuring a GUI itself.

The main downside is the dreadful habit of using 
screnshots of DOS windows and IDLE and reproducing 
them at a size which makes them hard to read!
(I think Ivan put bigger versions on the books 
web site.)

Also it does hark on a bit about Mayan calendars 
which might not grab your interest the way it 
obviously does Ivan's!

> Is it worth to use this book as first Python book
> (I have no programming experience)?

Yes, or you could look at mine which covers slightly 
different ground and is less python specific in some 
ways. But I'll leave comparison to other more neutral 
observers :-)

Alan g.
Author of the 'Learning to Program' web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld