Customer Reviews

Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am new to Python and wanted to learn. Prior to purchasing this book, I was reading "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz. I was literally half way through that book and couldn't write even a simple script due to the way that book is structured. I would not recommend that book. I was frustrated and ordered this book due to its coverage of Python 3. I am pleased.

This book takes an approach that gives the reader a quick overview of the language that is complete enough to start using Python by page 40! When the book mentions a topic that is covered elsewhere, there is a little box in the margin that tells the page that topic is covered - foward and backward. Great idea! That is very handy.

I had a little task that I wanted to write a script to do and I was able to do that easily after finishing the quick intro.

I am still reading the book and there is a lot of advanced information that I have not read yet. If the beginning of the book is any indication, it will be quite useful.

A previous reviewer mentioned his experience with Mark Lutz's book. I had a similar experience with Lutz's book too. Unfortunately, after what starts out with a very useful approach (one which should be widely used by other authors) of getting you up and running quickly, Summerfield's book falls into the same problems that Lutz's book had. Namely, it s very densely written, with no obvious separation in the text from what is the useful overall knowledge about a topic and what is the more arcane. I plodded through about the first third of the book, until I realized I was becoming confused about what I already knew about Python..so I quit. To be fair, the book is not intended as a tutorial so much as it is a reference. But I have to say, that it needs a major overhaul before it can be really useful in this context too. For example, more separation using white space, or sub heads, or something, should separate sections within a chapter, and separate examples and illustrations from unrelated previous or subsequent text. A little more use of emphasis or italics to highlight key text would be nice as well. And the font used for text and code is too similar, in my opinion. Especially when the code is inline with the text. That Summerfield knows Python is quite obvious. Too bad he and his publisher are not a bit more aware of how to present that knowledge to the rest of the world.

Having learned several programming languages, I am well aware of the pains of a poorly written book, and the joys of a well written one. This book stands out from the crowd as a well written and logically ordered introduction to the language.

If you have never programed before, this may not be the best book. It talks about many programming topics with the expectation that you already know what they are. That said, even if you have a weak programming background, (one semester of BASIC?) you will have all the necessary vocab to understand this book. Summerfield still does explain quite a lot.

As other reviewers said, the first 40 pages of this book are dense with information, but once you finish, you will have all the knowledge to write simple but complete programs. This book is worth every penny of its very reasonable pricetag.

Chapters:
1) Rapid Introduction
2) Data Types
3) Collection Data Types
4) Control Structures and Functions
5) Modules
6) Object-oriented Programming
7) File Handling
8) Advanced Programming Techniques
9) Processes and Threading
10) Networking
11) Database Programming
12) Regular Expressions
13) Introduction to GUI Programming

This book is clearly targeted at developers who are already experienced programmers in some other language, who wish to migrate their skills over to Python. The book goes through each of Python's language features piece by piece, in a no-nonsense, concise manner. The book is excellent at explaining how Python implements various programming paradigms and different approaches to the "Python way" of doing things. It doesn't "talk down" to you, or spend chapters and chapters going over basic demo programs. This allows the book to cover a lot of topics very thoroughly.

For me, the book was an excellent read and a great way to dive in to Python, and I expect other programmers would have the same experience. However, the pace is probably a bit too brisk for people who are programming for the very first time.

As other reviewers have noted this book takes the same approach as Lutz (Learning Python). It does a much better job at providing a reference for Python development than it does at introducing Python programming to novices. As long as that is what you are looking for go for it.

Beginning Python (Norton) is better if you are looking for an introduction.

I've been writing Python for a while now but wanted a good reference for porting to Python 3.0. The book is quite thorough and covers a lot of ground. As an experienced programmer the book did seem a bit slow, but it also makes the audience pool pretty large.

If you want a good reference or a place to start learning Python 3.x, this book is for you.

This book is not a basic book for people with no background at all in programming. But if you already have some experience with other languages, it is a fast, concise, and well-written introduction to Python. Please note that it is an introduction to Python 3, not 2.6 or earlier. Python 3 is the new, non-backwards-compatible version of the language. It is also arguably not what you should be using just now. So if you want to work in an earlier version of the language, don't get this book. It does not deal at all with earlier versions or differences between the versions.

If you're digging into the future of Python, version 3, then this is a great introduction!

I'm only 100 pages into this book, and already know it is hands-down better than O'Reilly's Learning Python, which is verbose and pedantic. Imagine learning about modules as early as Chapter 5, p195 (this book) instead of Part V, Chapter 21, p529 (O'Reilly). Learning Python reads like a Ph.D. dissertation on Python's language design, which isn't helping someone who want to learn the language quickly and hit the ground running. I don't need to hear about "immutability" one thousand times before learning about functions and modules.

One of the better programming books I've purchased, and vastly better than those other books with animal drawings on the covers. This is a book for people that understand concepts but not the syntax or pitfalls of Python. It won't hold your hand or repeat itself try to dumb things down for you. It tells you what you want to know clearly and concisely and I highly recommend it.

I took the recent launch of Python 3 as a chance to finally learn the language everybody seems to be talking about. I was reluctant to order this book at first as it was the first Python 3 specific book launched, but after seeing great feedback for the author's other books I took the chance and ordered it.

I've been extremely pleased with my purchase. It's been a pleasure to work through the book, including the examples, and I feel like I now have a good understanding of the language -- which I think is more important in the long run than just being able to use it.

Highly recommended to any programmer thinking about trying Python.