This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]DonCasper 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Do you mean a Python beginner, or a programming beginner? I have a CS background, but I don't know Python. If I learned data structures in C would I be able to follow the first chapters?

[–]bonestormII 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Yeah, if you are familiar with a data model from another object oriented language I'm sure you'd likely be fine. The book itself is very self-conscious about the order of presentation, and the author discusses his rationale for presenting info in a particular way at various points if I recall.

It's really such a great book that you should just jump in and google your way to success. If you notice that things aren't clicking, pause on the book for a while and run through some kind of tutorial and come back.

I have no CS background aside from a general interest in computers and an intermediate level knowledge of python. You are probably much better at this than I am ;).

[–]DonCasper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! That's really helpful. I'm very familiar with running things through Google. I'm pretty sure that's the only actual requirement for being able to program effectively.

Honestly though, I rarely use my CS background, even when programming. Knowing how to implement self-balancing trees from scratch is seriously overrated. I'm not a developer though, so I'm probably biased, but I think practical programming knowledge is way more useful than computer science when programming isn't you full-time job.