25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great text for learning Python, December 20, 2003
This review is from: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python (Paperback)
I don't actually own a hard copy of this book, but I read it in its entirety online, and I must say, it was all I needed to learn Python. I began programming 8 years ago in AppleSoft BASIC, and I've now been using C++ for 5 years. Prior to seeing this book, I'd looked into Python a few times, but never really got engaged enough to learn it. A few days ago, when I found a copy of the book on iBiblio, I read through it in two days flat, and now I have a really good feel for the language. The authors cover all the vital topics in a concise, consistent, and reader-friendly manner. I must say that I'm not a programming neophyte, so I don't have an objective feel for whether or not this book can teach you from scratch how to think like a computer scientist, but it certainly helped me once and for all to learn Python, and I'd recommend it to anyone without hesitation.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, September 6, 2005
This review is from: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python (Paperback)
I just got the online copy of this (available free under the GNU documentation license). I had some classes in the past, programming classes, all pertained to java and i did not learn much of anything about it. It was just "type this and blarg (As someone in a previous review said" This book is amazing, it has an elegant and significant way of blending words to the point where its fun to learn programming. Stick with the book and you'll not only learn the basics of Python, but you'll learn all the logic and other implementations of computer programming as you go along! Very good read and i plan on purchasing a hardbound copy just as a keepsake becuase i enjoy this book so much.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not Best, June 5, 2007
This review is from: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python (Paperback)
AUDIENCE: Beginning programmers. A reasonably good first text. Teaches and touches on numerous computer science ideas. Great for a high school or college level intro to programming class.
FLAWS: Not up-to-date with language features, computer science constructs seem to be somewhat randomly presented (perhaps this is the "muddle") another reviewer complains about, OOP is introduced far to late (in my humble opinion).
ULTIMATELY: Glad I bought it, would buy 2nd edition, have used it as a textbook for university classes.
This is a good guide to programming for the non-programmer. It develops basic procedural and structured software development ideas. It introduces OOP - object oriented programming - with some interesting examples. It concludes with four chapters on data structures.
This is not a systematic survey of the Python language, a book of slick examples for sophisticated programming (
Programming Python,
Dive Into Python,
Text Processing in Python and
Python Cookbook are excellent examples of wonderful Python riffs that exemplify state of the art application of Python to real-world problems. All of these assume some programming sophistication, however). This is a nuts and bolts, hand-holding exploration of some basic ideas of computer science using Python. It does this quite well.
Shortcomings include being somewhat dated. It does not cover some of the newer features in Python, such as list comprehensions or new-style classes. An additional shortcoming is that it reads too much like a traditional computer science text, and relies too much on procedural programming.
I suppose it's time for me to quit griping. I've taught many people to program using this book. It taught me the basics of Python so that I could appreciate Mark Pilgrim's
Dive Into Python, which really gave me a feel for the power of the language (granted, I had been developing software professionally for over 15 years at that point).
It is not a reference manual. A second edition needs to be written. I believe that OOP should be introduced much earlier, and can then become a much more natural approach to programming.
If you want a reference manual for Python, or something more advanced than a beginner's text, or something describing up-to-date language features, then keep on searching. Or, download a copy of this and try it out. See if it serves your needs. A link to the free download can be found at the Python ORGanization site.
But unlike the free download, you can set this on your desk next to your keyboard. After the first several chapters in the soft version, I ordered the hardcopy. I have not regretted that decision.
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