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Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours
- By Ivan Van Laningham
- Published Apr 14, 2000 by Sams. Part of the Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours series.
- Copyright 2000
- Dimensions: 7.375 X 9.125
- Pages: 528
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-31735-4
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-31735-4
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Annotation
Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours presents 24 hands-on, one-hour lessons that guide you through all the steps needed to learn the Python programming language. The lessons begin with basic Python syntax and language features, and move up through object oriented design and programming. The book ends with a series of chapters covering GUI programming (using Tkinter), Python as a system administration tool, and Python as a programming language for CGI applications.
PTR Overview
As part of the Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours series, this book will present 24 hands-on, one-hour lessons that will guide the reader through all the steps needed to learn the Python programming language. The lessons begin with basic Python syntax and language features, and move up through object oriented design and programming. The book ends with a series of chapters covering GUI programming (using Tkinter), Python as a system administration tool, and Python as a programming language for CGI applications.
Audience
There is a consensus in the Python user community that a basic, introductory level book is needed; and in fact it is widely held that Python is an ideal choice for a first programming language. Specific types of users range from: Users adopting Linux and looking for an easy, powerful way to unleash the full potential of Linux, Web developers looking for a modern object-oriented scripting language for CGI applications, and Users or administrators of any operating system interested in creating portable utilities and applications.
PTR Bullets
- Python is used extensively throughout the Linux community--it is included in every Linux distribution
- Python is an excellent language for learning programming, and this will be the only Python book on the market written expressly for the beginning Python programmer
- The author is a well-known and respected member of the Python community who is uniquely suited to present this material
User Level
Easy/Beginner
Product Author Bios
Ivan Van Laningham is a senior software engineer for Callware Technologies, Inc. where he provides Web server and Unix assistance and consultation as well as working on GUI design and programming using various languages, including Python. He was a presenter at the Seventh International Python Conference and at the O'Reilly Python Conference.
Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours presents 24 hands-on, one-hour lessons that guide you through all the steps needed to learn the Python programming language. The lessons begin with basic Python syntax and language features, and move up through object oriented design and programming. The book ends with a series of chapters covering GUI programming (using Tkinter), Python as a system administration tool, and Python as a programming language for CGI applications.
Technology
While it is often compared to Perl based on its power and flexibility, Python is in many ways superior to Perl. Python was designed from the beginning as an object-oriented language, unlike Perl where such features are a later (and poorly integrated) addition. Python is more portable, and it also runs on more platforms than Perl. Python is extremely powerful, has a clean and elegant syntax, and tends to enforce, or at least reward, a clear and understandable programming style. Because its syntax is simple, clear and powerful, it is an excellent first choice for a programming language. Red Hat Linux uses Python for its install procedure as well as many administration tools. Python is the primary programming language used by many large-scale Web sites like Infoseek and Four11. NASA's Johnson Space Center uses Python in its Integrated Planning System as the standard scripting language. Python has even been integrated into software products such as Caligari's TrueSpace.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
You'll need more than 24 hours, By
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This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself -- 24 Hours) (Paperback)
I bought this book hoping it would be a gentle yet thoroughintroduction to the Python language which I had hoped to use for webapplications. And the book started out along that track. Easy to read and lively and with lots of examples. The big problem I have with the book (and I only made it to hour 12 before I had to quit) is that there is no way for the reader to practice and learn the concepts in the book. There aren't any practice exercises or drills. There are screen dumps of code, but I didn't find the examples useful since I was looking for web-based applications rather than more mathematical types of examples. The examples also get very big and complex early on in the book. Experienced programmers will probably be able to follow along, but then they might not be buying this book in the first place. I'm still looking for a good, step-by-step way to learn Python.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Well written for a beginner book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself -- 24 Hours) (Paperback)
What I like: - Easy to understand. The author did a good job. - Casual writing style. (You learn a thing or two about Zen.) - Includes enough ref info on its topics, but not too detailed/technical.What I don't like: the editorial works. - Sample codes/output are presented as computer screen dumps. The color (gray scale) is hard to read, and characters are small. - The book description touts CGI as one of the book topics, but it's only covered lightly and briefly to add much value. - Chapter/hour 1 and 2 should be combined as 1. Too brief & too light.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Need an Aneurysm, this book should do the trick...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself -- 24 Hours) (Paperback)
...this book is garbage, and that's exactly where the book is now. In the garbage. The author needs to go back to school and get educated in the english language. He is very knowledgable in programming, he lacks the ability to put his thoughts in english that others can understand. He stops his thought half way through sentences. He has run on sentences, typo's, combined with the fact that he NEVER explains a single piece of code in the book completely, he famous lines in the book are "we'll discuss that later" which never happens, and "do you remember this?" NO, BECAUSE YOU NEVER EXPLAINED IT!!! Very frustrating, and i'm an undergrad student that has been punching out code in Java for 3 years, and I'm totally lost, how is that possible? 2 simple words for this book, don't bother. Get this book, it's much better: ISBN# 0-13-026036-3 - Core Python Programming by Wesley J. Chun
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Table of Contents
Introduction.
I. PYTHON MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND.
Hour 1. What Is Python?Hour 2. The Python Interpreter.
Hour 3. Basic Arithmetic with Python.
Hour 4. Variables and Control Flow.
Hour 5. Basic Data Types I: The Numeric Data Types.
Hour 6. Basic Data Types II: The Sequence and Dictionary Data Types.
Hour 7. Functions and Modules.
Hour 8. Useful Miscellany.
II. OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.
Hour 9. Objects at Rest.
Hour 10. Defining Objects.
Hour 11. Object-Oriented Programming Concepts.
Hour 12. More OOP Concepts.
Hour 13. Special Class Methods in Python.
Hour 14. The Laboratory of Dr. Frankenstein.
Hour 15. The Laboratory, Part II.
Hour 16. Objects in Motion.
III. INTRODUCING THE PYTHON GUI.
Hour 17. Introducing the Python GUI.
Hour 18. Tk Widgets I.
Hour 19. Tk Widgets II.
Hour 20. Tk Graphics I.
Hour 21. Tk Graphics II.
Hour 22. Tk Graphics III.
Hour 23. The Mandelbrot Set.
Hour 24. Miscellany.
IV. APPENDIXES.
Appendix A. Selected Bibliography.
Appendix B. Editors for Python.
Appendix C. Reserved Words and Identifiers in Python.
Appendix D. Special Class Methods in Python.
Appendix E. Other Python Resources.
Index.
Book
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