| Overview
Portable, powerful, and a breeze to use, Python is the popular open
source object-oriented programming language used for both
standalone programs and scripting applications. Python is
considered easy to learn, but there's no quicker way to mastery of
the language than learning from an expert teacher. This edition of
Learning Python puts you in the hands of two expert
teachers, Mark Lutz and David Ascher, whose friendly,
well-structured prose has guided many a programmer to proficiency
with the language.
Learning Python, Second Edition, offers programmers a
comprehensive learning tool for Python and object-oriented
programming. Thoroughly updated for the numerous language and class
presentation changes that have taken place since the release of the
first edition in 1999, this guide introduces the basic elements of
the latest release of Python 2.3 and covers new features, such as
list comprehensions, nested scopes, and iterators/generators.
Beyond language features, this edition of Learning Python
also includes new context for less-experienced programmers,
including fresh overviews of object-oriented programming and
dynamic typing, new discussions of program launch and configuration
options, new coverage of documentation sources, and more. There are
also new use cases throughout to make the application of language
features more concrete.
The first part of Learning Python gives programmers all the
information they'll need to understand and construct programs in
the Python language, including types, operators, statements,
classes, functions, modules and exceptions. The authors then
present more advanced material, showing how Python performs common
tasks by offering real applications and the libraries available for
those applications. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises
that will test your Python skills and measure your
understanding.
Learning Python, Second Edition is a self-paced book that
allows readers to focus on the core Python language in depth. As
you work through the book, you'll gain a deep and complete
understanding of the Python language that will help you to
understand the larger application-level examples that you'll
encounter on your own. If you're interested in learning Python--and
want to do so quickly and efficiently--then Learning Python,
Second Edition is your best choice.
Editorial ReviewsProduct DescriptionThoroughly updated, Learning Python, Second Edition introduces the basic elements of the latest release of Python 2.3 and covers new features, such as list comprehensions, nested scopes, and iterators/generators. Beyond language features, it also includes new context for less-experienced programmers, including fresh overviews of object-oriented programming and dynamic typing, new discussions of program launch and configuration options, new coverage of documentation sources, and more. There are also new use cases throughout to make the application of language features more concrete. The first part of Learning Python gives programmers all the information they'll need to understand and construct programs in the Python language, including types, operators, statements, classes, functions, modules and exceptions. The authors then present more advanced material, showing how Python performs common tasks by offering real applications and the libraries available for those applications. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises that will test your Python skills and measure your understanding. | Amazon.com ReviewThe authors of Learning Python show you enough essentials of the Python scripting language to enable you to begin solving problems right away, then reveal more powerful aspects of the language one at a time. This approach is sure to appeal to programmers and system administrators who have urgent problems and a preference for learning by semi-guided experimentation. First off, Learning Python shows the relationships among Python scripts and their interpreter (in a mostly platform-neutral way). Then, the authors address the mechanics of the language itself, providing illustrations of how Python conceives of numbers, strings, and other objects as well as the operators you use to work with them. Dictionaries, lists, tuples, and other data structures specific to Python receive plenty of attention including complete examples. Authors Mark Lutz and David Ascher build on that fundamental information in their discussions of functions and modules, which evolve into coverage of namespaces, classes, and the object-oriented aspects of Python programming. There's also information on creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Python applications with Tkinter. In addition to its careful expository prose, Learning Python includes exercises that both test your Python skills and help reveal more elusive truths about the language. |
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Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 137 reviews. Good if you read the whole thing., 2009-06-20 Reviewer rating: I'm an experienced C++ programmer, wanting to learn python. The very bottom-up organization of the book makes it hard to be productive without reading the entire book. I just finished it, and I think it presented a very clear, logical description of the language. However, if you only read the first half, you don't know "beginning python". Rather, you know half of the language, and can't do anything useful. This is entirely the wrong book to read if you need to write some useful python code tomorrow.
It was a little wordy and repetitive in places, but goes into enough depth to give a good understanding of the language. | Good book for starting python, 2009-06-15 Reviewer rating: This book has about 30 short chapters that focus on introducing a small piece. The author does not assume much experience, and tries to provide a clear explanation of each topic. The book is divided to 7 parts that cover a certain aspect, such as classes or modules.
The examples are mostly small, and very often for the interactive shell rather than as stand alone programs. The author states that this book was written as a learning tool, rather than as a guide to producing real life programs. For that, he guides readers to his follow up book, programming python (which I have not read).
One shortfall was the confinement of exercises to the end of parts (which often have 5 or so chapters) rather than at the end of each chapter. This approach might be alright considering the level of material covered, but I think it would be helpful to have more exercises.
In general, I think this is a good starting point to python, but probably needs to be followed by other books for actual production. | Excellent primer on Python, 2009-05-07 Reviewer rating: Compared to other Python guides I have used this one is the best. As always, O'Reilly has produced a great guide that can be approached either as a starting manual or an in-depth technical manual and reference. Although my time devoted to it has been limited everything it has taught so far has 'sunk in' far more than some of the other guides and on-line tutorials. Overall, I definitely recommend this guide for either software developers who want a platform for creating powerful applications (hopefully free software under the GPL!) or quick scripting in GNU/Linux environments. | A wonderful book if your target is to learn Python, 2009-05-01 Reviewer rating: Learning Python, 3rd Edition
I did not know anything about Python. I was just looking for a good book about this language in order to help my daughter at her University. The book not only help her as help me too. Since I began to read this book I could not stop reading. Reading it I could understand how powerful is the Python. | Good introduction to Python, to get you started, 2009-03-20 Reviewer rating:
This is one of the best introductory book I ever read on Python. This is a well-designed, well-written and concise book.
It gives you all the knowledge that you need to write system administration utilities, Internet-related programs and other small applications.
I will recommend this book to beginners to expert level. |
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