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Learning Python
 
 
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Learning Python [Paperback]

Mark Lutz (Author), David Ascher (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Learning Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming Learning Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
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Review

As a book for programmers who want to learn Python, it does a very good job. The coverage is informative and well order; making it easy to find what you're looking for. Overall, if you do some work with Python, you will benefit from owning this book. " - Sam Smith, news@UK, March "This book is a good example of Python culture, in the clarity of its text as much as in the quality of its code. Anyhone working their way through it will have a solid foundation upon which to explore Python's potential. Highly recommended." - Ivan Uemilianin, CVu, October 2004

Book Description

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.

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7 Reviews
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4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Good even for experienced..., Jan 26 2004
By 
Wayne Folta (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Learning Python (Paperback)
I was a programmer for 15+ years and used Perl for 8 or so of those years, so although I'm a newcomer to Python I'm definitely not a newcomer to programming or to scripting languages. When I ordered this book, I was worried that it might be too basic, but the more advanced O'Reilly Python books have not been updated to Python 2.2/2.3, so I ordered Learning Python anyhow.

And now that I've read it, I can highly recommend it even for experienced programmers. You will have to skim over basics in various chapters, but it's well-written and covers many topics, including 5-10 pages on 2.2's new-style classes, including static and class methods, instance slots, class properties, and __getattribute__.

It refers you to Python's documentation for the details of complex topics, but still gives you an idea of the concepts in play. For example, after a couple of paragraphs on instance slots, it says,

"... Slots are something of a break with Python's dynamic nature, which dictates that any name may be created by assignment. They also have additional constraints and implications that are far too complex for us to discuss here (e.g. some instances with slots may not have an attribute dictionary __dict__); see Python 2.2 release documents for details."

Which I think is a good compromise. They don't fill the book with details, but they don't simply wave their hands and give you no clue as to issues outside the scope of the book.

It is well-written and well-organized. It covers the core language well and gives a good taste for standard packages and many other tools including things like Pyrex and ctype.

(And you won't be disappointed with Python itself. A great language!)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Very clear text and organized structure, Mar 24 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Learning Python (Paperback)
I am a Windows .Net programmer who wanted to try some Linux programming (but console and GUI), and after a few frustated tries with C++, I finally found Python. Python is a _beautiful_ language, probably the most elegant I've ever seen since my days at university.

This book is very well-written, although the pace might be a bit slow (if you prefer a "faster" but more superficial book, try the Python Quick Visual Startguide). The author is extremely clear and the text very well-organized.

This book covers both the basics and the advanced stuff, so it might be all you need for a good while. Once you get familiar with the language basics, you might be able to learn the rest (such as GUI and web programming) through online tutorials.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best Python textbook, Jan 27 2004
By 
Ales Kavsek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Learning Python (Paperback)
After a brief encounter with the on-line documentation from Python community, I decided to learn this powerful language with the help of Python library from O'Reilly. I started with a "Python in a Nutshell" which is a good reference guide for experienced (Python) programmers, however it's too heavy for the Python newbie like me. Since, I'm not a professional, full-time programmer, I knew that I needed something more comprehensible, so I waited for the second edition of the "Learning Python" to be published. At the end, the wait paid off.
This book is excellent study guide for any kind of programmers, from absolute beginners to veterans in other languages. The book clearly shows that the both authors are experienced teachers. Topics are presented in a clear fashion with plenty of code samples and useful exercises at the end of each part. This book should be read as a textbook in front of the terminal, trying out all examples as they're explained.
Now, I'm comfortably looking forward to read some more specific and advanced Python books. Highly recommended!
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