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Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming 1st Edition

by Eric Matthes (Author)

4.5 1,383 ratings

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Python Crash Course is a fast-paced, thorough introduction to programming with Python that will have you writing programs, solving problems, and making things that work in no time.

In the first half of the book, you'll learn about basic programming concepts, such as lists, dictionaries, classes, and loops, and practice writing clean and readable code with exercises for each topic. You'll also learn how to make your programs interactive and how to test your code safely before adding it to a project. In the second half of the book, you'll put your new knowledge into practice with three substantial projects: a Space Invaders-inspired arcade game, data visualizations with Python's super-handy libraries, and a simple web app you can deploy online.

As you work through Python Crash Course, you'll learn how to:

Use powerful Python libraries and tools, including matplotlib, NumPy, and Pygal
Make 2D games that respond to keypresses and mouse clicks, and that grow more difficult as the game progresses
Work with data to generate interactive visualizations
Create and customize simple web apps and deploy them safely online
Deal with mistakes and errors so you can solve your own programming problems

If you've been thinking seriously about digging into programming, Python Crash Course will get you up to speed and have you writing real programs fast. Why wait any longer? Start your engines and code!

Review

Recommended reading for a “shining tech career” by Techradar India

Python Crash Course was selected as one of the best books for learning Python by Real Python
“It has been interesting to see, over the last few years, No Starch Press, which produces this book, growing and producing future classics that should be alongside the more traditional O’Reilly Press programming books. Python Crash Course is one of those books.”
—Greg Laden, ScienceBlogs

“All of these projects are well thought out and presented in such a way that learning the subject matter and implementing it is much more an enjoyable pastime rather than an onerous task that must be completed. Eric took the time to deal with some rather complex projects and lay them out in a consistent, logical and pleasant manner that draws the reader into the subject willingly, which unfortunately, many authors fail to do.”
—Full Circle Magazine

“The book is well presented with good explanations of the code snippets. It works with you, one small step at a time, building more complex code, explaining what's going on all the way.”
—FlickThrough Reviews

“Learning Python with Python Crash Course was an extremely positive experience! A great choice if you’re new to Python.”
—Mikke Goes Coding

About the Author

Eric Matthes is a high school math and science teacher living in Alaska who teaches an Introduction to Programming class in Python. He has been writing programs since he was five years old.

ISBN-10

1593276036
ISBN-13

978-1593276034
Edition

1st
Publisher

No Starch Press
Publication date

November 30, 2015
Language

English
Dimensions

7 x 2 x 9 inches
Print length

560 pages
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Starch Press; 1st edition (November 30, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593276036
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593276034
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #302,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #68 in Children's Programming Books
- #321 in Python Programming
- #427 in Introductory & Beginning Programming

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4.5 1,383 ratings

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Oliver Y.

Great book to learn python programming

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2023

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I have the free e-copy of the book online. I purchased the physical book to support the kind author of this book. This book is outdated using python 2 so I would suggest getting the updated version instead. Overall I had a good experience learning python!

2 people found this helpful

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Anatomy’s

Detailed

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023

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Very detailed and explains alot.

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KENT ERICKSON

Good Basic Book and Fun

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020

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First of all, I'm neither a novice nor an expert programmer. I have successfully programmed in many languages over the course of my career as an electrical engineer. Mostly however, I just learned enough to code up whatever was required to solve a specific problem. This book is a good, from the ground up, organized approach to learning basic Python. It won't make you an expert and I can't imagine it will make you employable, but it is a good start and will prepare you to move on. I liked the programming chapters and to some extent I enjoyed the projects. I found that the projects relied too much on just entering calls to add-in programs and didn't provide much insight into what was actually happening. I successfully built the aliens game and that provided some insight into pygame and the use of python. The data analysis project was very illustrative about the capabilities of using python and graphics addins. The Django section however, was maddening. It is possible that because I used PyCharm as my IDE but I was continually getting hung up on one trivial mis-step after another. I suspect that the only way to get successfully through the project is to use the exact IDE, python version, and Django version that the author used. At one point, for instance I was hung up for several days before I found that some particular Django call was known to not work in Python 3.7 and required 3.7.1. So I upgraded to 3.8 and the latest version of Django then got hung up on something else that didn't work even though I resorted to just pasting in the code from the book ( this occurred in the logins section). So I have now abandoned the book and will move on to something else. Somewhat disappointing to get this far and find a case of diminishing returns.

Overall, it is a good book and an achievement for the author. It is clear that he has a lot of insight and has done a lot of work.

2 people found this helpful

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C.W.

This is an excellent introduction, and raises the bar in these types of books

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016

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I have experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I wanted to start fresh on a new language. For some reason, Python seemed very attractive and I made a commitment to learn it in 2016. After taking a few courses at Treehouse, I decided I would like a book, because there is something about text that feels more concrete than videos. This book stood out to me so I gave it a shot, and I am glad I did.

The tone of this book is very easy going. It's moderately paced, so it feels like you are always learning something new, but not going too fast, and the book also never gets boring. It's very similar to other learning books, in that every new concept builds from the previous, etc...but Eric writes in such a way that there is no intimidation. Just a great style of writing.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that every chapter has "Try It Yourself" sections that give you objectives based on what you've been learning about. I know other textbooks have similar offerings at the end of chapters, but these seem to blend in with the material so well, and they're nothing complicated. They're like friendly reinforcements to the concepts you just learned about, and a great jumpstart to get coding.

Crash Course covers Python 3, and highlights the areas where Python 2 would be different. Eric also gives lessons on styling, and best practices, yet also says to just focus on getting things to work and go back later to make it more efficient, which I think is excellent advice and as I mentioned before, removes intimidation from anyone who might be worried they aren't up to par to code.

I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an introduction to Python. This will help start the foundation.

35 people found this helpful

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ethomas3281

A non-"Hello world" Python resource

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2017

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I have tried to take several (free) online courses in Python from some of the big names, but never made it past the first screen. I always stopped because none of them explained the bigger picture or gave real-world examples of why something like append is useful beyond completing some exercises in a course. So I can add something to the end of a list? So what?

This book, on the other hand, explains how what you're learning might apply to your actual job/life. I'm only on chapter 4, but thus far have learned more than I did completing a bunch of exercises on a popular "learn to code" site or attempting to make it past the first screen in an online course.

Other things I like about this book (listed in no particular order, even though I'm presenting it as an ordered list!)

1. conversational tone
2. lists of common errors
3. instructions on how to check for and install Python and other stuff you need to do the exercises
4. chunking and organization of the content (he definitely followed the Goldilocks rule--not too much and not too little in each section)
5. everything!

Maybe if you're fluent in a bunch of programming languages, this book might be too basic. I don't know because I'm not that person. For someone like me, however, who only knows HTML and CSS (which don't really count), this book is just right.

6 people found this helpful

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Daniel H. Fancher

Awesome introduction to Python

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2023

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Hands on projects and full of examples and detailed explanations. Even if you know nothing about Python, anybody can learn from clear instructions provided throughout this book. I love it.

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ZzZNetworks

Exceptional Introduction to Programming

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2023

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Python Crash Course is an outstanding book that excels in its beginner-friendly approach to programming. It stands as the best resource I've encountered thus far for learning how to code.

Nekr0

Explicaciones claras y paso a paso. Recomendadisimo!!

Reviewed in Mexico on May 16, 2019

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Me gusto mucho la forma que se uso para explicar cada concepto de programación con el lenguaje de Python. Creo que es un muy buen libro para principiantes (como yo). Aunque ya esta disponible su 2da Edición!!, y supongo trae algunas actualizaciones de contenido, así que no la pienses mas y a por él!!!

Con respecto al estado físico del libro, todo estuvo bien y la entrega fue a tiempo por parte de Amazon.
NOTA:
Hay un detalle con el diseño de el "lomo y la cubierta", lo que le llaman en Ingles "Lay Flat Binding", ya que al poco tiempo se despego la cubierta por uno de los costados del libro, a pesar de que siempre leo sobre mi escritorio.

3 people found this helpful

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FABRICIO CARVALHO

Livro muito bom para o inciante e para quem quer migrar de outra linguagem para Python.

Reviewed in Brazil on January 23, 2019

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Esse livro é ótimo para os iniciantes na programação em Python. Apresenta exemplos e exercícios simples, além de prover material de apoio (respostas, códigos, etc.) no site do autor. Para um programador experiente como eu, que tem forte background em outras linguagens de programação (ex. Java, Javascript e C), é de facílima leitura e consome aproximadamente 1 ou 2 h por capítulo, dependendo do fato de você fazer ou não os códigos e exercícios do zero, acompanhando o fluxo da leitura. Em 2 semanas terminei a leitura completa e fiz mais da metade dos exercícios. MInha única crítica é que a parte 2 (projetos) que ocupa a metade do livro, aproximadamente, pode não interessar a todos os leitores e pode ser dispensável. Se o livro fosse mais barato, contendo só a primeira metade e os projetos fossem suplementares (no site do autor), eu daria 5 estrelas como avaliação. Obs: Utilizo a versão em inglês.

3 people found this helpful

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Tushar M.

Great book to learn Python....

Reviewed in India on July 3, 2019

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This is a great book to learn the Python language. This book is for beginners as well as intermediate learners. This book is divided into 2 sections. Section 1 is about language basics and section 2 is all about how to do projects in Python. In the projects section, you will get to know how to make a simple Alien shooter game using Pygame and Python, how to do visualization by making graphs and how to make a web application by using Django and Python. This book balances the theory and examples. This book is not verbose. This book teaches you just that concept that you will need to learn the language and how to use that concept in the projects. And in Section 2 You will get to know those concepts that you don't find in Section 1. This is the best Python book I have read until now. Buy this book and enjoy the fruits of learning Python language.

10 people found this helpful

Laurent F

Excellente introduction à Python

Reviewed in France on November 10, 2018

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Et à la programmation en générale. Livre structuré, tout est introduit progressivement, clairement et dans le bon ordre.
Des exercices sont donnés suite à chaque nouvelle notion introduite. Le livre introduit au listes, dictionnaires, boucles/itérations, fonctions, saisies de données, classes, écriture/lecture de données, tests logiques et comment tester vos programmes pour s'assurer de leur robustesses quant aux erreurs/détournements.
3 programmes sont à réaliser en seconde partie de livre: jeux vidéo, traitement/visualisation de données, site internet interfacé Django.

Je recommande sans réserve ce livre pour s'initier à Python.

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