Learning Python, 3rd Edition
by Mark Lutz
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Book Reviews of Learning Python, 3rd Edition
Book Review: Pythonesque - a major contribution to learning programming with Python
Summary: 5 Stars
I am really impressed by the 3rd edition of Mark Lutz's "Learning Python" book. It's a comprehensive introduction to the language. If you already know another programming language, you'll be able to jump in anywhere and get a quick working exposure to Python. If you are completely new to programming, the author starts slowly and moves at a steady, manageable pace. He provides all that you'll need to know in order to write and run programs.
I believe "Learning Python" would work great as a standard text book in college comp sci programs. It is a great exploration of the Python language and the best introduction I've seen covering how to actually build something more complicated in the real world than "hello world".
I'm a big fan of Ruby, but reading this new 3rd edition opens my eyes to what I've been missing by not doing more with Python. I've looked at other Python books in the past and none of them made Python really interesting. This book does.
I've been thinking about what language to teach someone totally new to programming - my kids, for instance, or college students just starting into programming . Python is a strong candidate and this book would be an ideal teaching aid.
One of the "pedagogical" things I like about Python (and Lutz's book) is how clearly you can see the influence and ancestry of C and C++. Lutz describes the steps that have been taken to improve Python into a more productive programming tool without giving up the power.This opens up an interesting line of discussion into the dynamic and evolutioary history of programming languages.
This is a big book. I'm only part way through the 600+ pages. You won't sit down and breeze through it in an afternoon. However, you'll quickly get well past "Hello World" and gain a good feeling for the language. I found it easy to skip ahead to some of the later chapters that interest me; they stand well on their own.
If you are curious about Python, this book will give you all the start-up skills you'll need.
Book Review: Great Intro to Python
Summary: 5 Stars
I probably wouldn't recommend this book as your 'First intro to programming...' or anything, but for anyone with moderate exposure to programming or scripting that really wants an indepth introduction to Python, this book is great. (and it would work for a dedicated beginner; it isn't terribly advanced, it just doesn't show enough programs IMHO to suit a beginner that wants to start 'doing stuff').
If you aren't sure you want to learn Python, go work through a web tutorial first and make sure you like it enough to commit to such a large tome (the one at [...] is a fine intro). That's what I did. When I wanted more, I turned to this book and could not be happier.
For serving its purpose though, I give it Five Stars.
It could have used some more examples, but that is what 'Programming Python' is for...
It could have used some reference lists, but that is what 'Python Pocket Reference' is for...
(I wouldn't want to have to carry this thing around with me for reference anyway!)
As far as a very thorough discussion of the basic language features of Python 3 (and 2.6, with differences pointed out), I felt that I got more than my money's worth out of this book (and went out and bought the other two companion books after reading this one and enjoying it so much).
I feel that I got a more thorough introduction to Python from this book than I received from a semester long C++ class with a slightly larger textbook, and I was able to go back and easily rework all my C++ assignments in Python after I finished (granted, Python made some but not all of them trivial). And it also left we well prepared to knock out a number of problems on [...] once I finished (granted a lot of them test your math more than your programming, but still).
After finishing those tasks, I am looking forward to reading through 'Programming Python' and getting a better introduction to the library.
Book Review: Decent book, bad editing (kind of)
Summary: 2 Stars
I wanted to like this book. As a general rule, I give the benefit of a doubt to O'Reilly books, and rarely am I mistaken. But this was one of the rare exceptions. In my experience, there are two trains of thought when it comes to learning a programming language:
1) Start right in with a book, using it to familiarize yourself with the language while you use the language to start fleshing out stuff that you learn in the book -- let's call this the "synergistic" or maybe "complementary" approach: using the book complements the coding you try, which, in turn, lets you put stuff you're learning into a workable framework.
2) Read the whole book through, and then apply what you've learned.
Personally, I don't know anyone with a good enough memory to really be able to pull off #2. But, honestly, it's more about patience than memory: people get excited about a language, and want to start using it. Having to (pretty much) read a whole book before you can start digging in is a bit of an anti-climax. The problem is that that's what you have to do with _Learning Python_. For example, one of the fundamentals of almost all programming languages is how looping is accomplished. In _Learning Python_, looping isn't discussed in detail until you're almost *250* pages into the book. Instead, the very, very fundamentals of the language are gone over in excruciating detail. Honestly, if you'd never programmed before, this might actually be a helpful, good thing. If, on the other hand, you've had pretty much any other programming experience, the pace is slow and tedious. I found myself yearning to be *doing* something, and instead was just plodding along.
If you have had previous programming experience, and are relatively well-versed with how languages work, I have to recommend _Python Essential Reference_ by David M. Beazley. Just read its first chapter in the bookstore, and you'll find yourself becoming quickly enlightened.
Book Review: If books were measured by weight...
Summary: 3 Stars
I just spent a few days going through this book and learned a lot. I've been working with PHP for years, but never did much complicated code. I studied Java about 8 years ago also and learned a lot about OOP from that. But never did any programming in Java. So it was all concept, no experience.
My reason for reading this book was to start using Python with Django. I wanted to learn Python first so I would understand the framework better.
This book covers in excruciating detail many of the finer qualities of just about everything you can imagine being in the language. I'm sure it doesn't cover everything the language can do. But somehow it spends 600 plus pages going over details that I wouldn't expect to find even if I was reading a 300 page book called "What I was thinking when I wrote this particular function on July 3rd 1991"
If something can be explained by 2 lines of example code and a three sentence paragraph about what's going on, the author does that -after 2 pages of explanation of how this code you are about to see might be a little like C, but it's a little different too, and how what you are going to learn is really powerful, and how some students might notice that the code is similar in structure to the code that you will see on page 400 later in the book.
If you think my review is way too verbose, read the book.
I give it 3 stars because it was in fact clear and well communicated information. It was just often hard to keep reading past all the unnecessary words to get to the useful content.
Book Review: Wordy
Summary: 3 Stars
This book should be called "Learning Python for people who have never programmed before". The author states in the preface that no assumptions have been made about the reader's programming background. I think that this is why this book is so wordy.
Amazon's opening statement: "The authors of Learning Python show you enough essentials of the Python scripting language to enable you to begin solving problems right away..." Well, not right away. You have to read half the book first. The book delves into the details of data object types before even talking about basic programming features such as for/while loops (pg. 248). This book is an obvious outcropping of the author's classes on Python. I would think that the author's approach would be fine in a classroom setting, but this hand-holding approach in print is laborious.
The book also has altogether too many references to later chapters. I got tired of reading "X will be covered later in chapter Y". If you aren't going to talk about it now, don't waste the reader's time talking about how you are not going to talk about it now.
That said, I found the information in the book to be useful.
I just received "Programming in Python 3" by Mark Summerfield. This book takes the approach I wish that "Learning Python" had.