Python Fundamentals LiveLessons (Video Training) [Paperback]

Wesley Chun (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0137143419 | ISBN-13: 978-0137143412 | Publication Date: January 2, 2009 | Edition: 1 DVD/Paperback

For any student or professional interested in learning the fundamentals of Python

 

In this one-of-a-kind video package, leading Python developer and trainer Wesley Chun helps you learn Python quickly and comprehensively, so that you can immediately succeed with any Python project.

 

Just click and watch: One step at a time, you will master Python fundamentals. If you already have Python experience, these videos will help further develop your skills. The lessons start with an introduction to the core features of the Python language, including syntax basics and standard types and operations. The lessons progress into advanced topics, such as Python’s memory model and object-oriented programming.

 

This LiveLessons video course closely mirrors the topics covered in its sister publication, Core Python Programming, Second Edition (Prentice Hall, 2007). As in the book, viewers will find review questions and coding exercises at the end of each lesson in the video booklet to test the material introduced in the video and printed parts of the lesson.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wesley J. Chun, MSCS, is author of Prentice Hall’s bestseller, Core Python Programming, Second Edition (corepython.com), and coauthor of Python Web Development with Django (withdjango.com). In addition to being a senior software architect, he runs CyberWeb (cyberwebconsulting.com), a consulting business specializing in Python software engineering and technical training. He has more than twenty-five years of programming, teaching, and writing experience, including more than a decade of Python. While at Yahoo!, he helped create Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! People Search using Python. He holds degrees in computer science, mathematics, and music from the University of California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

Welcome to Python Fundamentals LiveLessons DVD. This is a complete video course that can be used to bring you up to speed with Python. It is intended to complement and is adapted from the book Core Python Programming, Second Edition (ISBN-10: 0-13-226993-7, ISBN-13: 978-0-13-226993-3), also by yours truly.

This workbook provides auxiliary material to augment or supplement the lessons on the DVD and provides some exercises so you can gauge how well you absorbed the material. The exercises either come directly from Core Python Programming or are adapted from it, and I recommend that book for more challenging problems than you will find here. A problem prefixed with (CPPx-y) means the exercise is either adapted or taken directly from Core Python Programming Exercise y in Chapter x. I also describe for each lesson which chapters from the book are the most applicable. Section headings beginning with an asterisk (*) cover advanced material and are optional.

Conventions

I introduce new technical terms using italics. URLs are formatted as http://links. Monospacing is used for all code in both the presentation and booklet. Code blocks and interactive interpreter examples are set in monospaced blocks, like so:

>>> print 'Hello World!' Hello World! 

Book Resources

A full copy of the entire presentation, plus a bonus appendix, is accessible directly on the DVD. You will also find all of the main code examples from Core Python Programming on the DVD. At the time of this writing, there are no plans to create a separate Web site for this LiveLessons course, so I recommend that you visit either the Core Python Programming book’s Web site, http://corepython.com, or the main Live-Lessons site, http://mylivelessons.com, for additional information. The author can be reached via email at [e-mail].

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 DVD/Paperback edition (January 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137143419
• ISBN-13: 978-0137143412
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,125,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

WESLEY J. CHUN, MSCS, is author of Prentice Hall's bestseller, "Core Python Programming" (http://corepython.com), its video training course, "Python Fundamentals" (LiveLessons DVD), co-author of "Python Web Development with Django" (http://withdjango.com), and has written for Linux Journal, CNET, and InformIT. In addition to being a software architect and Developer Advocate at Google, he runs CyberWeb (http://cyberwebconsulting.com), a consulting business specializing in Python training and software engineering. He has over 25 years of programming, teaching, and writing experience, including more than a decade of Python. While at Yahoo!, he helped create Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! People Search using Python. He holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Music from the University of California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mostly recordings of slides with audio narration, February 13, 2010

By 

Jakinder Singh (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Python Fundamentals LiveLessons (Video Training) (Paperback)

This is most certainly not a step by step introduction to Python programming, though technically it is a slide show about the fundamentals but only for someone who already knows a similar programming language. It is NOT for someone who has never programmed before. It is merely a lightweight summary of the content in the author's book, Core Python Programming, of which he'll refer you to more than once to learn about topics he really should be covering, despite the fact that this video slide show actually costs more than the book! No need to read any further, just get the book and skip this waste of money.

If you prefer to watch a video of mostly slides with text on a blue background while the presenter narrates (yawn), and see very little actual video of live coding being done to illustrate the lessons or provide hands on step by step Python programming insight, then this is the product for you (yawn). Many lessons don't even have any video of programming in Python at all! The most coding you'll see is the narrator going through the interactive shell in Lesson 2 rushing through a "Demo" of interactive commands. After that, videos of the author actually doing something get progressively rarer. It's baffling why the author agreed to even do a "Live"Lessons video at all, or why the publisher would release it as a "Live"Lesson along with a misleading description.

On the other hand, why pay for something when there's no shortage of free Python videos of slide presentations on the Internet that are as equally theoretical and not particularly engaging or illustrative? But, if you insist on buying a Python video tutorial, then you'd be better off looking for LinuxCBT's Python scripting video which clearly shows what a live lesson is all about though it isn't cheap.

Python is an interesting language, and deserves better treatment than an uninspiring, overpriced slide show presentation sold as a "Live" Lesson. This might actually turn new programmers away from Python. I'd advise new programmers to search MIT University's website for an entire free video course introducing beginners to programming using Python as their first language.

The LiveLessons series are a bit of a hit and miss in quality, but future authors could benefit greatly by watching how Bill Jelen (Mr. Excel) does his LiveLessons videos. If LiveLessons ever covers Erlang or Clojure, I can only hope they'll use slides to only briefly introduce the theoretical topic, then actually show how a programmer implements the topic for illustration, passing along insights only an experienced developer could as he codes multiple practical examples of the theory.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners, December 14, 2010

By 

K. W. Bennink (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Python Fundamentals LiveLessons (Video Training) (Paperback)

I couldn't agree more with Jakinder Singh's review. Only I think that 2 stars is being generous.

It's called live LESSONS, but this is not video training at all, nor is it a course.

The title 'Python Fundamentals' is also very misleading. This is definitely NOT something that is suitable for beginners.
There are a few coding examples in the beginning, but they go very fast and any explanation is non-existant.
(I couldn't even complete the helloworld.py one from lesson 1, since I have no idea how to get IDLE to open a .py file from a location on my hard disk. There are NO instructions on how to do this).

I've watched and skimmed through half of it (despite extreme confusion from the start, I have no programming experience and only a limited understanding of the Python basics and terminology) and at best this seems to be a pocket reference in slide-show format.

Don't waste your money.

1.0 out of 5 stars NOT Worth it!, May 23, 2011

By 

Jesse The "Jesse The Brain" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Python Fundamentals LiveLessons (Video Training) (Paperback)

This Video is presented on a VERY abstract form! If you are new to Python then I would not use this to learn it! For example, the presenter explains "Functions" (def in Python), without a single example on kwargs or groups. It is true that he mentions these, but NOT examples. Since I am attempting to recommend video courses to those new in Python, under my supervision, I cannot recommend this video to my trainees...It would be a total waste of their time!