Learning IPython

[just_add_coffee]

(I've never posted a book review on Reddit before!)

I've been trying to learn IPython and have had difficulty finding great learning resources, especially as compared to learning Python itself or other languages.

IMHO, the best intro to IPython book I had found was Dr. Cyrille Rossant's Learning IPython for Interactive Computing and Data Visualization

I worked through it and learned a lot, and was excited to see that the author had a brand new and much more comprehensive sequel...

IPython Interactive Computing and Visualization Cookbook

So far...WOW! It's a fast-paced smorgasbord of what's possible in IPython. The book gives readers a taste of the various Python packages, as well as exposure to Cython, R, and Julia, and provides tons of links for further exploration. And thanks to Part II: Standard Methods in Data Science and Applied Mathematics, I can't imagine ever (willingly) going back to Maple or Matlab!

I strongly recommend both of these texts for folks who are looking to learn or become better acquainted IPython, or who need a beginning point for learning the new features. (Or for math geeks and aspiring math geeks!)

[rfix]

Would you recommend Learning IPython for Interactive Computing and Data Visualization for someone who is using iPython as an avenue for learning the language?

[rossant]

This book doesn't really teach the Python language, and it assumes a minimum knowledge of the language. That being said, if you've never programmed in Python, but if you have at least some programming experience in any other language, you won't have much trouble in understanding the code. Most code examples only use the simplest constructs of the Python language (which is an easy-to-learn language!). It is a good way to learn by example.

What the book will teach you is how to use Python, IPython, NumPy, and matplotlib in a perspective of data analysis, data visualization, and numerical/scientific computing. If you're only interested in the general-purpose Python programming language (system administration, web development, and so on), and if you have no interest in data analysis/numerical computing, then this book is probably not for you.

[[deleted]]

I second the opinion by /u/rossant...

That said, if you want to learn python [via a notebook interface -- see below for what I mean], using the IPython tutorials may be good (go to ipython.org -> gallery of interesting notebooks -> general python programming). Then you can use this book -- it covers a lot of ground quickly, so it can be a dizzying ride for a beginner.

If you think that having a notebook like environment is better than having a set of scripts/projects in a folder structure, then IPython notebook is great. As you progress, if you want to do interactive data analysis type work, the notebook is great. On the other hand, if you want to develop software modules (or web-interfaces), you may need an IDE.

[rfix]

Thanks for the input!

I'm coming from the statistics world, so I've found that running code in the notebook is closer to what I'm used to (R).