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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 142 Ratings

Good reference, not good for learning - 2009-08-24
Reviewer Rating:
If you are not a programmer by trade and are looking to learn python, wait to buy this book. It certainly provides thorough information, but it is really, really dry. Personally, I prefer a book that teaches you through exercises and examples where one lesson builds on the concepts of the last. This book does that, but to a boring degree.

I read through 80% of the book and didn't feel like I learned python because I hadn't put it into practice. I later bought the "Python Programming for the absolute beginner" book by Michael Dawson. This book gets right to the point and lets you learn by doing.

Good book - 2009-10-02
Reviewer Rating:
It's a great book. I did buy a slightly outdated version, which was why it was under $6 (including shipping), but the basics are there.

Beginner programmers: This book is perfect. Though it doesn't have all the humor of a "For Dummies" book, it's not dry reading (IMHO).

Expert programmers: Don't buy this book for yourself; it's a little long-winded. You'll learn the language, but you'll also spend too much time reading about the concepts of programming...

nice starters overview - 2009-09-01
Reviewer Rating:
This book gives a good fundamental introduction to the programming language. It is easy to read and gives clear examples.

Excellent Book - 2009-08-20
Reviewer Rating:
This book could not have better introduced Python in a clear and easy to understand manner. True, it is not exactly an interesting read, but as you plow through, you learn more than you thought possible. I have read several books on programming languages, and even the series that try to add humor and spice to the content do not teach as well as this book. I just oredered the "sequel" of sorts, Programming Python. I look forward to another great lesson in this fabulous language.

Wonderful Manual - 2009-07-13
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a wonderful introduction and reference manual to Python 2.5+. Starting with no understanding of the language itself, in eight hours of reading (over half the book) I managed to learn everything I needed to know to create a useful application to monitor my corporation's client networks. Two days after that, I wrote a GUI for the same program. Since then, the entire Operations department has been using my program to monitor our networks.
The book gives you the basics up front and gives the harder things (object-oriented programing, exception handling, etc.) near the back of the book. In the first 400 pages, I found everthing I needed to make my program work as expected. While this book is great for learning and reference, it is best paired with the [...] website, which gives all the possible methods of the standard library. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a basic programming knowledge and a desire to learn the language.

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