39 Comments
- dgh1973, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Python rocks, easy first language to learn on also.
- mrbandersnatch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Replying to myself - how sad ;)
I just noticed - this tutorial was written in 2000!! No wonder it seemed incomplete. I wonder if I submit a COBOL tutorial if that would get digged. - holydope, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I love python, although I'm not a programmer, I found it easy to learn and extremely powerful. My only wish is that there were more tutorials on building GUI programs with it.
- spyres, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Much better python tutorial books. (free)
Dive Into Python : http://diveintopython.org/
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist
Learning with Python - http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ - mrbandersnatch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I like Python as a language but this tutorial is so pooly written Im suprised its getting digged. Yes, theres some good info in there, but its incomplete, the presentation is VERY poor and topics are generally covered in far too little detail.
Go to http://www.python.org/doc/ for (better but still not great - wish they would wikify it). documentation - nobelnob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Nice list, how about some free online books on Python too ?
http://kickjava.com/books/python.htm - alecm3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4We run high-performance TCP servers written in python using Twisted twistedmatrix.com framework and it rocks! It can handle 5,000 clients with only 50% 2.8Ghz Xeon used by the server process. The development time for a server like that written in C++ would be 4x what we spent.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Python is one of the best programming language out there.
- mrbandersnatch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Agreed - BS does what it does VERY VERY well. Worth the cost of entry to Python alone.
- geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I always default to python when parsing HTML, you cannot beat python+beautiful soup
http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3When I started doing python, I knew absolutely zip about programming. It actually made learning php, perl, and C much easier for me.
- Sakaris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3There are some useful tutorials for using the wxPython framework.
http://wiki.wxpython.org/ - regeya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Indeed. I used the RubyfulSoup port a while back on a project, and it's incredible. That's what I'll be using the next time I need to screenscrape, fo sho.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Best way to learn a language is to think of a useful program, and learn on the way to accomplishing it. Once it is done, think of a harder one, and keep going. There are sites that list these kinds of challenges.
A book:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=9&url=http%3A%2F%2Facmmaybod.persiangig.com%2Fdocument%2FProgramming-Challenges.pdf&ei=rqBnRZTuBIjGwAKDqsnpCg&usg=__swUoVCaIpVreg1rMFgQB5hzE4cw=&sig2=KlaEFjLyqWFv6yeo5P2H_w - msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd say Ruby and Python are about the same in terms of learning curve. Python tends to be used for more general purpose applications, while Ruby tends to be more web-based, but they overlap those boundries quite a bit. You can run python based web sites and ruby based applications too.
Both are definately good candidates for a first language. Read both of their sites and decide. Python was the 3rd language I picked up, and it was very intuitive. - regeya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I can do a ditto. There were a number of concepts I totally didn't get until I'd tried them out in Python. Python rocks for that.
- msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's syntax differs from C/Java, sure. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
- ioral, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3> worth the cost of entry to python alone
The cost of which is practically nil! Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. See this story by Eric S. Raymond: http://www.python.org/about/success/esr/ - zephc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Plug for a co-worker's book: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/0471778648
- synae, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2You know, I always thought the 'How to Think Like a Computer Scientist' books (especially the Python one) were much too slow-paced. Regardless of pace, I'm not sure if they work or not (I'd like to believe I already think like a computer scientist).
I suppose if you have no exposure to programming it's a reasonable start. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Crap. Damn google links.
http://acmmaybod.persiangig.com/document/Programming-Challenges.pdf - comparetheloan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0t runs on anything that can compile or run the binary interpreter. Just skip that crap and get a couple books from O'Reilly. You'll thank yourself for it later... trust me.
http://www.simfone.co.uk - iAlex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2***** funny. Exactly when I was reading about it the other day, it appears on the Digg frontpage. Weirdo.
- Jack9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1To be fair, PHP is slow. Terribly slow, no matter how you do it. What's interesting is that low level PHP functions (C ports) are never rewritten, which is why you don't see PHP forks but purely organizational frameworks.
- mmlug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Dear all,
I want to learn Python too. But python is easier than Ruby? Python langauge is powerful than Ruby`?
Can yu tell disadvantage & advantage between Python & Ruby? - foshaug, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It is pretty old, but it is still useful for anyone who wants to learn python.
- Zhay, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4But it's syntax is nassssty
- ioral, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I agree, the tutorial is difficult to read. The author says it's written for beginners, but then instead of showing how easy it is to do stuff with python, he goes Q&A, asking questions like, "Is Python strongly typed?" and "What is an operand?" Duh. Beginners would be more interested in "how do i print today's date?" or "how do i sort my list of files?"
And the tutorial on the python page
http://docs.python.org/tut/node5.html
Is much more readable than the corresponding one in the article:
http://www.developer.com/article.php/625911 - SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Yeah, wow, that's totally not like PHP.
Oh, wait. - socket, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It runs on anything that can compile or run the binary interpreter. Just skip that crap and get a couple books from O'Reilly. You'll thank yourself for it later... trust me.
- -dXs-, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This is a lot less like a tutorial and more just a guide.
Much like the intro describes, expect to be doing a lot of your own research.
Though, a guide is much better suited to really motivated people. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I see what you did there with the title.
- CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Pretty awesome, thanks.
- xenubaba, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Learning all these OO languages is useless. What you need is to get brainf.cked by the functional programming languages' funky syntax and thereafter, all languages are trivial to pick up.
- bonlebon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1You are welcome.
- mrbandersnatch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Thank god it isnt a functional language - the hoops one needs to jump through when using XSLT to accomplish trivial tasks has been more than enough to convince me that I dont want to use a general purpose functional language (thats not to say XSL isnt worth it - right tools for the right job and all that). *shudder*
Some of your other criticisms are somewhat harsh though - most languages can be mulleted by the incredibly stupid or intelligent (often hard to tell the difference) and many OS projects suffer from the documentation/support/fragmentation issues you describe.
Python has areas where it shines - and it has areas where its a complete dogs dinner. Recognise its strong points and its a GREAT tool to stick in your toolbox. 2D games probably isnt one of them ;) - Jack9, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3My favorites are the tuple tutorials which are saying "look we can act like a functional language" while not having any of the critical benefits. Python still sucks in readability, functionality, and every framework has the same incomplete documentation. The fragmentation in the Python community between the different incompatible Python frameworks (since each have reimplemented a subset of the language in C), screams "dont use me".
/wrote a 2D game in PyGame. As per the docs, dont use Python for a vector-based game.
/wrote a client for a multiplayer game in TwistedPython. As per the docs and forums and IRC channels, you're on your own.


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