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salman
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Advice on the best way to learn python?

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So I want to branch out and from my M$ background and get into python (it seems to be all the rage these days).

I basically want to branch out into lamp a little, and python really seems to have picked up some steam as of late.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out? (focus on web and scripting)
I tend to like videos, and I am currently looking at showmedo.

The great thing is that debugging.com is hosted on the cloud, so it supports both .net and lamp at the same time.

From my research so far, python is great for scripting and rapid development so its a great tool to have.

Book/link suggestions would also be appreciated.

beginner python
  • asked 2 years ago
  • edited 2 years ago
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MadHatter
2309

technically speaking the term LAMP is linux, apache, mysql, and php (not python). our game engine's scripting language was python and it is pretty powerful (or was for our situation because of boost.python that allowed us to expose underlying C++ api's to python), but personally speaking, I could deal with python in a professional realm about as well as I could handle VB. this single most annoying thing about python (which would keep me from ever considering it) is the way it uses tab delimiters to define scope. Any language which uses non-printable characters as part of their syntax (tab for py and new line for vb) is just plain bad mojo.

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salman
510

@madhatter, I see what your saying, I guess it comes down to preference but I sort of liked the argument that the use of tab delimiters forces a level of coding style and consistency.

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last answered 2 years ago

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It really depends on how you learn.

My approach is to pickup a small syntax book that covers the basics (or an online resource). Something basically like a python syntax cheat sheet, and then broaden your knowledge as you practice on your own.

Once you have the syntax down, you will then have to delve into the libraries to get a feel for what is already baked into the platform.

Free online resources like dive into python are also great!

http://diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

If you are looking to do web dev, then you will probably be interested in django web framework.

There are also some video tutorials on YT: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=python+tutorial&search_type=&aq=f

  • answered 2 years ago by:

    Rick_A
    761
  • edited 2 years ago
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