[Tutor] Python in 24 hours more like 24 years

[Glen Wheeler]

  Since we seem to be speaking about books alot, I thought I'd throw in my
personal favourite, Python and Tkinter programming by John E. Grayson.  I
found it very good, and like somebody mentioned - great to curl up with in
bed at night.  The book does assume the reader is already somewhat familiar
with python, and assumes basic OOP knowledge.  It does have two short intro
to python chapters, but they are mainly for people who are already
programmers but not in python.  The very next chapter he goes on to build a
fully-fledged application in tkinter.  Another thing I liked about it is the
source code for many of the exercises is available online, at his website.
This source code includes more than what is in the book, but that isn't to
say the book has little source code - it just doesn't have 'from tkinter
import *' at the top of every snippet, and mainloop() at the bottom.  Things
like that.
  Well, my advice is that if anybody has done a little python, and wants to
go with tkinter style programming next, get this book.  It's great, I can't
really say enough about it.  Clean focus too - always concentrating on
practical, useful ideas and concepts - with heaps of examples.

  One disclaimer though, as I said above - not a tutorial, not for
beginners.  That's why I'm mentioning it now, when the discussion seems to
have come to 'what to do when the tutorials get too basic, and I know all
the "rules"??'.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Coughlin" <kauphlyn@speakeasy.org>
To: "Erik Price" <erikprice@mac.com>
Cc: "Jonikas Valdemaras" <jonikas@ldr.lt>; <tutor@python.org>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Tutor] Python in 24 hours more like 24 years


>
> I was looking for the tutorial that really turned me on and found the
following
> page
> http://www.awaretek.com/tutorials.html
> which is a big list of python tutorials.
>
> alas, the tutorial i learned from isnt there. and I cant remember where it
was.
> by the way, I struggled for almost a year trying to learn 'how to
program'. I
> spent time courting  c++, perl, and visual
> basic before python actually requited my advances. And it was love at
> first sight. Now I am actually getting paid to charm and seduce Java. But
python
> will always be my first love ;-)
>
>
> Plug:
> Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming definately was the very best books
> for me. Might be a little much for a true beginner - but I recommend it
anyway.
>
> Also as Cameron said Python Essential Reference rocks. It can fit in your
back
> pocket!
>
>
>
> ~d
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 21 Feb 2002, Erik Price wrote:
>
> >
> > On Thursday, February 21, 2002, at 04:35  AM, Jonikas Valdemaras wrote:
> >
> > > Many thanks for all answers,
> > >
> > > I'm slightly depressed :) because Laningham's book
> > > is the only choice in ours. So, I can't get your
> > > recommended books.
> > > If I understood correctly, not bad way (at least better
> > > than Laningham's book :) would be to use tutolias
> > > from www.python.org. Correct?
> >
> > I'm still learning Python.  So don't take my words as those of Someone
> > Who Knows.  But I have found that there are tutorials all over the web
> > that teach all kinds of programming.  In fact, I did this with PHP -- I
> > used a book to get me going, but halfway through the book I got bored
> > with it because the tutorials on the web were much more concise (the
> > book was a giant Wrox book, admittedly).
> >
> > The fact is, though, is that reading tutorials on a screen just sucks.
> > There's nothing like curling up in bed and reading a book.  Some people
> > might think it's weird, because you don't have a computer handy to try
> > stuff out on, but I prefer to ingest a chapter and then try it out
> > later.  So I say, get the book if it's convenient to do so, but
> > otherwise, check out the following sites:
> >
> > DevShed has good quick tutorials that give you a rough idea of the
> > topic.  But if you want to know more, you need to know where the online
> > documentation is.  They have a fairly lengthy tutorial on Python, but it
> > doesn't teach you how to program.
> > http://devshed.com/
> >
> > This is a pretty good tutorial.  "How to Think Like a Computer
> > Scientist."  The name doesn't excite me, but it doesn't leave much to
> > question -- read through this once and then go back and re-read the
> > parts that you didn't totally understand.  I found it comprehensive.
> > http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/
> >
> > The problem with a lot of tutorials (like the DevShed one, above), is
> > that it's easy to teach you the basic structures of a language, like
> > functions and naming rules and whatever.  But to actually teach you some
> > programming concepts is a trickier task.  That's where I see myself -- I
> > sort of already "know" Python's "rules", but actually writing efficient
> > programs (the fun part) is something that I need to constantly work on.
> > I haven't had time to read this tutorial, but I think it addresses this
> > very subject...
> > http://www.mindview.net/Books/Python/ThinkingInPython.html
> >
> > And Alan Gauld has already mentioned his site.  There you go, now you
> > don't have to buy a book.  Between these four tutorials, which will take
> > you a bit to get through, you should have a grasp of Python and be able
> > to start learning from yourself.
> >
> >
> > Erik
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tutor maillist  -  Tutor@python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
> >
>
>
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