[Tutor] nutshell review

[nephish]

Sounds like its worth the wait. thanks all. 

shawn

On Thu, 2006-02-09 at 19:02 -0800, Terry Carroll wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, nephish wrote:
> 
> > i know this comes up from time to time. i am considering buying 'python
> > in a nutshell'. All the reviews i have read for it are very good. But it
> > only covers up to python 2.2. i use 2.3 at work, and tinker with 2.4 at
> > home. As good a reference as it is, is it too dated to be that good
> > still ? 
> 
> No, it's not too dated.  I still use it constantly as my main reference.  
> When I know a facility is post-2.2, I use the online docs instead.  But my 
> preference is definitely for the Nutshell.  Alex explains things 
> extraordinarily well, in my opinion.  The book is well-organized 
> and well-indexed, so you can find things pretty easily.
> 
> Two thumbs up, from here.
> 
> > i have 'Learning Python' and 'Programming Python'. Learning is
> > awesome for me, Programming is a bit over my head. 
> 
> That tracks my feelings.  I don't find "Programming Python" to be very 
> useful.  It's not the sort of reference book that, say, "Programming Perl" 
> occupies on the Perl world.  My own take on PP is that you can't open it 
> up to a discussion of a particular feature and understand that feature 
> without understanding a lot of other things having nothing to do with the 
> feature, but that are implicit in the explanations and examples.  (But I 
> hasten to add, I've seen enough people swear how much they love that book, 
> that this may just be idiosyncratic to me.)
> 
> I think a good Python *reference* book is invaluable to any Python 
> programmer.  And to me, that book is Python in a Nutshell.
> 
> There are a couple others that are good, too: 
> 
>   The Python 2.1 Bible - 2.1, obviously; I don't know if there's a later 
> version;
> 
> 
>   The Complete Python Reference  - published 2001, so bound to be a bit 
> dated)
> 
>   Python Essential Reference - When I first started playing with Python, a
> library copy of this was my reference.  I liked it, but I like the
> Nutshell just a little better, but that may be a matter of familiarity.  
> If you're going for this one, I'd suggest waiting another couple of weeks.  
> The Third Edition is coming out February 24, which means it will be the
> most current Python reference book, when published.  I would be surprised
> if it didn't cover through 2.4.
>  
> 
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