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Learning Python (Help for Programmers) (Paperback)

by Mark Lutz (Author), David Ascher (Author)

3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 382 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc, USA (26 April 1999)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1565924649
ISBN-13: 978-1565924642
Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 17.8 x 2.3 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 472,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#55 in Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Languages > Python

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

The 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.

Review

"...is an excellent introductory text for those who really want to know the language inside out. Backed up with code examples from other works or on the Web, it does provide a great foundation for future Python work." Linux Users, Issue 21

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I started serious programming thanks to this book., 28 Dec 2002

By	Guido Beelen "guido_beelen" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm not at all a programmer. I had some programming classes in modula2 during my training in biotechnology and played a bit with BASIC but I didn't do any seriuous programming till I read this book.

I read the first chapters of this book, had the feeling I understood some, put it aside and came back later. At the second glance I had a "Aha" experience. I devoured the other chapters and now I'm really programming. I won't built a wordprocessor from scratch yet, but I'm able to use python (a very powerfull language) to solve realworld problems and help me maintaining a website, make a simple organiser and so on.

Thank you Mark Lutz and David Ascher for your book, thank you Guido van Rossum for the python language.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow moving for those with previous programming experience., 5 Aug 2005

By	W. O. Smith (London, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Learning Python (Paperback)

If, like me and many other programmers, you are already somewhat familiar with C++ and Perl, you'll find this book slow moving. I would guess that few people start with Python as their first major programming language.

I'm about 40% through the book and we've only just covered function calls, and nothing OO. There's only been 4 or 5 new concepts so far that aren't identical to other common languages.

The author does go some way towards saying "this is similar to the C idea of ..." or "those familiar with C++ will recognise the similarities...". But what would be really useful would be a big bar next to the few concepts that are fundamentally different, saying "!!!Python Specific!!!" or something.

Having said that, there's few typos and the writing style is reasonable. I'd like to give it 3.5 stars really.

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starting point for learning Python, 19 Mar 2000

By	P. Joyce (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Learning Python was where I started out when learning the Python language - it assumes no previous programming experience, although I would advise the absolute beginner to start on something a little more basic. The book is divided into two parts. The first, written by Mark Lutz, takes the reader step-by-step through the basics of the language, providing familiarity with the core of the language. The second, smaller part of the book is written by David Ascher, and is the only thing which prevented me from awarding the book five stars - although it provides applications of the language to common tasks and problems, I thought it was a little too messy and abstract to be of any real use. The method adopted in Programming Python is much better. Overall, a great starting point for learning Python, and a worthy stepping stone for some of the larger, more advanced books available.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Painfully slow
After reading 2/3 of this book I was tearing my hair out. It fails to address either beginners or experience programmers properly. Read more

Published 7 months ago by T. Howe

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning Python
This book is an excellent programming aid for both absolute beginners and more experienced programmers. Read more

Published 8 months ago

3.0 out of 5 stars Good grounding in concepts, but needs more contextualising
I've been learning Python from this book now for a few months. The book is well written, it's clear and the authors 'take care' of the reader. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Mr. R. Agnew

2.0 out of 5 stars NOT for beginners.
While this book may be helpful to experienced programmers who are new to Python, it's emphatically not for those who are hoping to learn programming. Read more

Published 19 months ago by J. Scott

1.0 out of 5 stars Can that spam, please!
I'd like to balance out the reviews here by offering this book the minimum score. The book advertises itself as being appropriate for a first-time programmer, but honestly... Read more

Published on 2 Mar 2006 by heatopher

5.0 out of 5 stars Look at my Python!
Excellent book, covers the language really well and has enough to get you started really quickly without delving too far into it!

Well worth a look to anyone Learning Python

Published on 18 Oct 2002 by Lewis Cornick

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent tutorial introduction to Python
I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone learning Python. The layout of the book is clear and logical: it works from the basics of the language up through functions and... Read more

Published on 23 April 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good introduction to a great language
I found the book to be very good, and especially liked the "gotchas" section at the end of each chapter. Read more

Published on 6 Jun 1999

› See all 11 customer reviews...

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