- Paperback: 752 pages
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 3 edition (29 Oct 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0596513984
- ISBN-13: 978-0596513986
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 17.8 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
389,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #83 in Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Programming > Languages > Python
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Portable, powerful, and a breeze to use, Python is ideal for both standalone programs and scripting applications. With this hands-on book, you can master the fundamentals of the core Python language quickly and efficiently, whether you're new to programming or just new to Python. Once you finish, you will know enough about the language to use it in any application domain you choose.
Learning Python is based on material from author Mark Lutz's popular training courses, which he's taught over the past decade. Each chapter is a self-contained lesson that helps you thoroughly understand a key component of Python before you continue. Along with plenty of annotated examples, illustrations, and chapter summaries, every chapter also contains Brain Builder, a unique section with practical exercises and review quizzes that let you practice new skills and test your understanding as you go.
This book covers:
- Types and Operations -- Python's major built-in object types in depth: numbers, lists, dictionaries, and more
- Statements and Syntax -- the code you type to create and process objects in Python, along with Python's general syntax model
- Functions -- Python's basic procedural tool for structuring and reusing code
- Modules -- packages of statements, functions, and other tools organized into larger components
- Classes and OOP -- Python's optional object-oriented programming tool for structuring code for customization and reuse
- Exceptions and Tools -- exception handling model and statements, plus a look at development tools for writing larger programs
About the Author
Mark Lutz is the world leader in Python training, the author of Python's earliest and best-selling texts, and a pioneering figure in the Python community since 1992. He is also the author of O'Reilly's Programming Python, 3rd Edition and Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition. Mark began teaching Python classes in 1997, and has instructed more than 200 Python training sessions as of 2007. Mark also has BS and MS degrees in Computer Science and 25 years of software development experience. Whenever Mark gets a break from spreading the Python word, he leads an ordinary, average life with his kids in Colorado. Mark can be reached by email at , or on the web at http://www.rmi.net/~lutz.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After reading 2/3 of this book I was tearing my hair out. It fails to address either beginners or experience programmers properly. I fall into the latter group, being a perl developer of 10 years.
For beginners it doesn't explain any programming concepts. So you will be learning python features without grasping what purpose they fill.
It shows you very methodically the basic forms, constructs and features of the language but not why or how to use them. A good book will show you these features in context early on and walk you through the example code for real use cases highlighting the feature it is showing.
It should not really be comparing why feature x is differnt in python to C or worrying the reader about future changes to the language. It should give the reader just enough information to start playing with the language by showing the reader basic programs, explaining the concepts and providing good exercises that encourage the reader to think like a programmer.
Experienced programmers will feel like they are wasting their time I as did. I'm reading Core python now which is considerably better but even that could be arranged better. I'd prefer a summary of data types, conditionals and looping and then get right to the meat and potatoes of functional and oo programming, followed by a more detailed reference. Detailed tables of of datatypes, file open() options should not be at the beginning, they should be in a reference section.
I got a bit sick of all the monty python references too although it did made me laugh when it asked me what my favourite colour was in one of the exercises - but that unfortunately was it's only redeeming feature.
For beginners it doesn't explain any programming concepts. So you will be learning python features without grasping what purpose they fill.
It shows you very methodically the basic forms, constructs and features of the language but not why or how to use them. A good book will show you these features in context early on and walk you through the example code for real use cases highlighting the feature it is showing.
It should not really be comparing why feature x is differnt in python to C or worrying the reader about future changes to the language. It should give the reader just enough information to start playing with the language by showing the reader basic programs, explaining the concepts and providing good exercises that encourage the reader to think like a programmer.
Experienced programmers will feel like they are wasting their time I as did. I'm reading Core python now which is considerably better but even that could be arranged better. I'd prefer a summary of data types, conditionals and looping and then get right to the meat and potatoes of functional and oo programming, followed by a more detailed reference. Detailed tables of of datatypes, file open() options should not be at the beginning, they should be in a reference section.
I got a bit sick of all the monty python references too although it did made me laugh when it asked me what my favourite colour was in one of the exercises - but that unfortunately was it's only redeeming feature.
Format:Paperback
This is the book to read to learn Python.
Easy read, cover to cover, teaches you everything you need to know and more.
Easy read, cover to cover, teaches you everything you need to know and more.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
47 reviews
37 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Terrible Book for Python
16 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback
I was sorely disappointed by this book. I normally love O'Reilly books and was very glad to see that they had make a beginners book for Python; but this book is just terrible. Like others have said, its very very wordy, repeating even the most simplistic concept 5 different times but discussing the more complicated parts with esoteric examples - which is what is accounting for the majority of this book's pages.
Though I have now become a pretty decent Python programmer, this book had absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead I would highly recommend Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) which is a fantastic book for learning and great for reference.
Though I have now become a pretty decent Python programmer, this book had absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead I would highly recommend Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) which is a fantastic book for learning and great for reference.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Is this really from O'Reilly?
5 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the first O'Reilly book that I will say that I regret purchasing. Coming from Perl and now trying to see what the hype with Python is about. I know Java as well as C++, so I understand OO and all it is supposed to do.
So far I am on page 200 and I still can't do a darn thing with the language. Instead the author chooses to spend pages explaining how python handles objects in memory (not sure how I supposed to understand what an object is if I never did another language). It is now page 200, I have no idea how to do loops, no idea how to accept input or even how to print a string. This book is terrible. My learning Perl book is only 200 pages long and packed with useful information. This book just goes into detail about the language and how it operates internally. That would be fine towards the end of the book, but as it stands this is the only O'Reilly book I can't recommend.
So far I am on page 200 and I still can't do a darn thing with the language. Instead the author chooses to spend pages explaining how python handles objects in memory (not sure how I supposed to understand what an object is if I never did another language). It is now page 200, I have no idea how to do loops, no idea how to accept input or even how to print a string. This book is terrible. My learning Perl book is only 200 pages long and packed with useful information. This book just goes into detail about the language and how it operates internally. That would be fine towards the end of the book, but as it stands this is the only O'Reilly book I can't recommend.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Good reference, not good for learning
24 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
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