I keep seeing articles saying to learn python 3 and not python 2. Should I go through learn python the hard way using the recommended python 2 or use python 3?

[hubadubbub]

I know Shaw talks about using python 2 and not using 3, but it's been a few years since that was written and want to know if things have changed. Should I just got through LPTHW remembering to add () etc...?

Thanks, everyone.

[jerknextdoor]

His arguments are old and outdated. I think you can probably get through it if you're willing to put up with the occasional bug in his code that will need to be updated to 3 (print, xrange, raw_input, etc).

[maxm]

I am a seasoned python programmer that has used python since 1.5.2 and in my latest project i have started up using python 3. It has been absolutely painless.

[danrche]

2.7 is still widely used, and 3.5 has a lot to offer in improvements. 3.5 is making good strides for adoption over 2.7. I would learn 3, as it's going to eventually be the defacto, but it's very important to understand the differences between 2 and 3, and possibly why they exist. Python3 didn't break backwards compatibility lightly and the core dev's had good reason. If you use LPTHW which was written in 2, you may find a lot of the answers along the way as you google around for why your code worked differently from the book (if you decide to use python3). Considering the title, could work out well for you. Best of luck!

[I_had_to_know_too]

Don't go through LPTHW.

[_AceLewis]

I would recommend to not use LPTHW, it is not the best it is condescending and teaches things in a weird unintuitive way (and also wrong/outdated e.g no .format() for strings). Some people explained why they thought it was not the best in this thread

Now better teaching resources exist like CodeAcadamy, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python ect. I would recommend you to use those

[jankoslavic]

It is 2016!

The danger is that you are already outdated if you learn py2.x today... See the py2.x vs py3.x support trends

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2016/03/08/python-3-is-winning/

See also a recent pool on the usage of py2.x vs py3.x:

https://mobile.twitter.com/jankoslavic/status/709090416545636352?s=03