[Tutor] louis renton

[Leam Hall]

On 1/21/23 20:05, paulf at quillandmouse.com wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jan 2023 14:43:27 +1300
> dn via Tutor <tutor at python.org> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>>
>>> A good and simple reference is important. Matter of fact, I've found
>>> Google to be invaluable. If you can't find it in your reference
>>> easily, Google it, and you'll find explanations and simple code
>>> examples. I'm relatively new to Python, and that's how I've done
>>> it. Also, there is a good reference for Python and its libraries on
>>> line. Look for it.
>>
>> Google is NOT a reference. What you will find listed is a collection
>> of web-pages. Whether they are accurate or otherwise good or bad is
>> open to question! See also: copying code from StackOverflow.

> Opinions apparently vary. I've found tons of useful explanations and
> working code from Google and Stackoverflow. "How to fetch a string from
> the user in Python" on Google yields useful help. Obviously, you have
> to copy or mimic and test to make sure stuff works.

As have I, but I haven't actually learned a language that way. Louis was asking about how to actually learn Python, not just find code snippets.

>> A formal curriculum such as an on-line course or even a text-book has
>> been designed to introduce topics in manageable chunks, to build upon
>> existing knowledge, and thus to show how 'it all' hangs-together.
> 
> Doubtless a formal course of study is useful. However, my experience
> with academic texts (including those from my college years) has been
> less than stellar. My college calculus text was nearly unreadable, and
> I did well in high school math up through analytic geometry. This is
> partly why Amazon allows you a look into the book before you buy it,
> because a lot of them are just garbage. I've known plenty of academics
> who couldn't think their way out of a crossword puzzle.
> 
> Paul

Yeah, a lot of textbooks are highly priced and useless. However, I've learned multiple languages and tools with good books from O'Reilly, Manning, and even Packt. The latter needs to find better editors, but some of their books are great. Dusty Phillips' book on Python 3 OOP, for example.

I'm not as sold on formal education as dn is, but I have found a structured learning plan to be very useful. Google and Stack get you snippets, but there's more to Python that that. Given all the tech layoffs in the US, and the good publicity Python has gotten via the TIOBE index, a lot of folks are going to become "Python Developers". Hiring companies won't have good ways to sort out the cut-and-pasters from the actual students of the language, and we'll all suffer for it.

dn and his Auckland crew are working to improve the learning portion of the community, and I applaud that.

Leam

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