Best books for learning python

Darkphenom

Can anyone recommend good recent books on learning python (for beginner).
I have done some c programming but I have only really gone as far as variables. I wanted to do python because you can make programs with a gui.

Edit: Also are there any ways of finding programs written in python? I learn a lot from seeing other peoples work so it would be useful if I could see how someone else used python to make a useful program, rather than 'Hello World'

Tillotson

I know there's Learning Python the Hard Way which is aimed at beginners but I haven't read it myself.

You'll find plenty of python projects on github

dob99

Darkphenom wrote: »

Can anyone recommend good recent books on learning python (for beginner).
I have done some c programming but I have only really gone as far as variables. I wanted to do python because you can make programs with a gui.

The Python Tutorial is a great place to start and it's free. I would recommend taking a look at it and then perhaps looking at some books afterwards.

Edit: Also are there any ways of finding programs written in python? I learn a lot from seeing other peoples work so it would be useful if I could see how someone else used python to make a useful program, rather than 'Hello World'

If you use Ubuntu, I recommend getting "quickly" (sudo apt-get install quickly). This is a piece of software that provides the beginnings of a command-line or gui application in python from a template. There's a quick tutorial here.

One book I will recommend is the Python Cookbook. However, this is not meant as an introduction - you're expected to have some prior knowledge.

Plebs

Darkphenom wrote: »

Can anyone recommend good recent books on learning python (for beginner).
I have done some c programming but I have only really gone as far as variables. I wanted to do python because you can make programs with a gui.

Edit: Also are there any ways of finding programs written in python? I learn a lot from seeing other peoples work so it would be useful if I could see how someone else used python to make a useful program, rather than 'Hello World'

I've heard the MIT opencourseware Python course is good. Not a Python programmer here though. Although I have written a couple of lines. I'm a Perl head.

stesh

Darkphenom wrote: »

Can anyone recommend good recent books on learning python (for beginner).
I have done some c programming but I have only really gone as far as variables. I wanted to do python because you can make programs with a gui.

Edit: Also are there any ways of finding programs written in python? I learn a lot from seeing other peoples work so it would be useful if I could see how someone else used python to make a useful program, rather than 'Hello World'

The O'Reilly book is excellent. But once I got familiar with syntax, etc., pydoc was where I did most of my discovering.

stesh

Plebs wrote: »

I've heard the MIT opencourseware Python course is good. Not a Python programmer here though. Although I have written a couple of lines. I'm a Perl head.

#!/usr/bin/perl

APPEAL:

listen (please, please);

open yourself, wide;
    join (you, me),
connect (us,together),

tell me.

do something if distressed;

    @dawn, dance;
    @evening, sing;
    read (books,$poems,stories) until peaceful;
    study if able;

    write me if-you-please;

sort your feelings, reset goals, seek (friends, family, anyone);

        do*not*die (like this)
        if sin abounds;

keys (hidden), open (locks, doors), tell secrets;
do not, I-beg-you, close them, yet.

                            accept (yourself, changes),
                            bind (grief, despair);

require truth, goodness if-you-will, each moment;

select (always), length(of-days)

# listen (a perl poem)
# Sharon Hopkins
# rev. June 19, 1995

noxqs

If you are completely new to programming, and doing C with just a bit of variables is completely new. Then I will recommend the following:

Think Python - How to think like a computer scientist.
http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html

It is a full, free, professionally written book with a good community and source code freely available for download. Additionally, if you like lectures, MIT Open CourseWare has excellent python videos available. Speficially the MIT 600 course in CS available at the website or through iTunes U.

davil

I would recommend "Python Programming for the absolute beginner."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Dawson/dp/1435455002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283158089&sr=8-1

I have also read the PHP5 / MySQL for the absolute beginner, the series in general is very good. You can skim through it if you're already experienced in other languages or if you're an absolute beginner (as you said) it should be very helpful too.

c_man

As well as books, you should take a look at www.pythonchallenge.com/

davil

yep http://www.pythonchallenge.com is a great site to learn from - and if you prefer a tizag.com style quick rundown of functions etc, this site is great :

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/

Evil Phil

Core Python Programming is a good book. There's a kindle edition too it would seem.

jmcc

"Beginning Python" Hetland.
"Python Essential Reference" Beazley.
and
"Python Phrasebook".

Regards...jmcc

Civilian_Target

I learnt with Dive Into Python.

It's fairly good, but maybe a bit long-in-the-tooth these days