Learning Python is an introduction to the increasingly popular Python programming language. Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented scripting language. Python is growing in popularity because:

• It is available on all important platforms: Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Linux, all major UNIX platforms, MacOS, and even the BeOS.

• It is open-source software, copyrighted but freely available for use, even in commercial applications.

• Its clean object-oriented interface makes it a valuable prototyping tool for C++ programmers.

• It works well with all popular windowing toolkits, including MFC, Tk, Mac, X11, and Motif. Learning Python is written by Mark Lutz, author of Programming Python and Python Pocket Reference; and David Ascher, a vision scientist and Python user. This book starts with a thorough introduction to the elements of Python: types, operators, statements, classes, functions, modules, and exceptions. By reading the first part of the book, the reader will be able to understand and construct programs in the Python language. In the second part of the book, the authors present more advanced information, demonstrating how Python performs common tasks and presenting real applications and the libraries available for those applications. All the examples use the Python interpreter, so the reader can type them in and get instant feedback. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises. Solutions to the exercises are in an appendix.

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 I did buy a slightly outdated version, which was why it was under $6 (including shipping), but the basics are there.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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