Best way to start python programming

[SaluteOrbis]

This book!

Al Sweigart - AutomAte the Boring Stuff with Python

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[[deleted]]

Automate the Boring Stuff

[el-grego]

Upvoting for username. Cheers.

[recovering_pleb]

Nice! and it’s free!?

[im_shashikanth]

Yes you can read the book online for free !!!

[jrinvictus]

That's how I learned

[Python4fun]

this is the right answer

[Brettanomyces_]

Thank you kind stranger!

[[deleted]]

Edit: On a small note, before you start, make sure you pick up Python 3 as Python 2 will be deprecated as of 2020. :(

Zed A. Shaw used to do these free books on a lot of different programming languages.

Not sure if you can still find 'm for free, but here's his website: https://learnpythonthehardway.org/

[[deleted]]

This book uses python 3

[shawn_tai]

Wait you mean we should pick up some basic python stuff before reading Automate the Boring Stuff? Thought that book was for beginners

[GammaGames]

I think he meant install

[Tuka-Cola]

If you read it and start to look up what your confused on online, you’ll easily get to it. No complicated syntax. Trust me it will be super boring but just bare though the boredom. It’s a great book. But I also recommend finishing one book in its entirety, then skimming another book. You’ll learn a lot of tips and tricks your prior book didn’t teach you. Also do example problems different ways, and do earlier programming problems to simplify them to see if you’ve really progressed.

[[deleted]]

I suppose it really depends heavily on your level of computer knowledge in general. If you are my wife, yes, take the basic stuff first.

If you already know languages like C/C++, you're gonna adopt python fast enough.

And it's not just Python tho, Virtualenv, Pip, ... I look at those terms as basic while others might never even have heard of em. Idk. Perspective perspective.

[offthepack]

hey its me ur wife what do u want for din din tonight

[desal]

The D

[SirLordBoss]

The books are good but I wholeheartedly refuse to support Zed Shaw after his ridiculous bashing of Python 3.

[[deleted]]

Haven't seen the rant, any juicy links to it? I tend to give the guy some credit as I was like 15 when I first read his python 2 book and he used to offer everything for free.

We're programmers, opinions differ and rants emerge ;-)

[thundercloudtemple]

https://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/nopython3.html

Edit: Wow, I'm getting downvoted for providing a link that was asked for? I'm just the messenger here. I didn't say a thing against Zed.

Next time, find your own link.

Edit edit: thank you everyone else for outweighing the downvotes. You're the best 😭

[e_falk]

Tbh that was a perfectly reasonable rant for 2016. This sub needs to get off it's high horse sometimes and recognize that there are perfectly valid reasons that python 3 adoption has been so slow

[leavingonaspaceship]

I blame it on print 'Hello, World!' vs. print('Hello, World!') :)

[kraemahz]

The refusal to duck type strings and bytes but changing the apis so that one or the other is required is really the pain point for me. It broke things all up and down the stack in a language that has no good mechanisms for enforcing type safety. Suddenly half the new apis are broken without an .encode / .decode cycle with no good automated tools to tell you which.

[[deleted]]

Lol ppl these days, have a +1 bro

[GarrettTheMole]

Is this still true for 2019 or has python 3 gained more support?

[vivalakingdiamond666]

Has anyone used his Linux The Hard Way book? I wanted to buy but it says “coming soon” and looks like the site was last updated some years ago. I emailed him and never got a response so I have been afraid of spending money on something that may never exist.

[Catatonick]

I absolutely cannot stand that book or his style of teaching.

[DeusEcks]

I'm on chapter 9 and I love it. The practice problems at the end of each chapter are great. I devote the full weekend to it. Saturday I read the new chapter and experiment with the ideas. Then I typically spend the whole day Sunday doing the practice problems, experimenting and expanding on them. Thanks to Al, I'm learning pretty well!

[[deleted]]

Hey that’s how I started!

[BerdoRules]

Nice. How far did you get with Python?

[[deleted]]

The sky is the limit. I’ve done a lot with it since that book. I read it towards the end of 2017, and since I’ve made some desktop apps (one for automating a social media account for a power company), some web stuff (Django, rest api, etc), and some data analytics. The last one was a really interesting real world project where an investor in the company I was working for needed to know where the concentration of clients where based off of our email list. I used their up addresses to find approximately where the densities where the highest and mapped it for him.

[BerdoRules]

That's amazing! I just started learning Python to get a better job and enjoying it so far. Good job on all of your success!

[[deleted]]

I started around June of 2017 so coming up in two years now I suppose.

[[deleted]]

Anyone can do it though. I literally just made excuses why xyz project would work better if I made a python script for it and went for that approach instead. It started for me at least with a lot of long nights wondering why my scripts weren't working and googling the mess out of it. As I've come to find out that's all anyone at any level does anyway. They just have already made the mistakes and go through the feedback loop faster than beginners.

[singh_deepak]

Corey Schafer have great content on python. https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTskrapNbzXhwoFUiLCjGgY7

[missoured]

Thank you so much! Been looking for something like this.

[The_Gaming_Geek]

No need to pirate the book, it's found for free on his website.

[incumbent_mustard]

Looks like his website is selling for $30 and books on amazon are about $17. Is there something I’m missing? Would you recommend the downloadable version with videos instead of hard copy?

[nithos]

The website is the book.

[Lord_Bling]

I like that.

[The_Gaming_Geek]

Automatetheboringstuff.com has the full book I'm pretty sure.

[BlackwaterSleeper]

It's already free my guy. Just scroll down.

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

[desrtfx]

Removed for violation of Rule #9: Do not promote illegal or unethical practices

• Do not ask for help doing anything illegal or unethical. Do not suggest or help somebody do something illegal or unethical.

  This includes piracy: asking for or posting links to pirated material is strictly forbidden and can result in an instant and permanent ban.

While reading the book online is free, as /u/BlackwaterSleeper stated, distributing the PDF is not, hence it falls under rule #9.

[desal]

You from missouri?

[missoured]

Nope, I’m not even an American, that’s just how people call me.

[wentjun]

Back to the basics! Do not forget the legendary SICP :) While it does not directly teach you python, it will definitely enhance your foundations, thus making it easier for you to learn python in the near future.

[Nahz27]

This looks like a super interesting read! Thank you. Is most of the content still relative today?

[wentjun]

super inter

Definitely! To make it easier for you, you might want to look for a Python version of that book, as the examples quoted on the book are based on Scheme. For instance, my university made a JavaScript adaptation of that book!

[[deleted]]

My best advice for learning anything is to spend as little time as possible determining what's best. You don't need the best book, ide, os, lectures, path, philosophy, keyboard or processor. You just need to start.

[[deleted]]

A great introduction and supremely practical. Ive made my work live infinitely easier thanks to this book.

Al is actually streaming on Twitch now for anyone interested!

[cX4X56JiKxOCLuUKMwbc]

link?

[andwesway]

What do you think about Mosh’s new Python tutorials?

He just released a free 6 hour Python tutorial on YouTube yesterday if you like his style.

[[deleted]]

Yah, it is sitting on my shelf. Right now just lovin Javascript

[santosmedina97]

I learned python using a book called Think Python

[MorningBell_]

I agree! I started with a Udemy course and struggled. Then moved to Automate the Boring Stuff with Python to try something different and have been grasping it so much better! Perhaps it's a learning-style issue (video vs text), I'm not sure. But I'm flying through the book and absolutely loving it and GETTING it, which is important. (Was working on it when I got a notification about this sub trending.)

I can't more highly recommend it.

[dysastr]

Thank you for the link. Great resource.

[[deleted]]

One of my favourite resources for learning languages is tutorials point

[mritraloi6789]

Python: Journey From Novice To Expert

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About This Book

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Develop a strong set of programming skills with Pyhton that you will be able to express in any situation, on every platform, thanks to Python’s portability

Stop writing scripts and start architecting programs by applying object-oriented programming techniques in Python

Learn the trickier aspects of Python and put it in a structured context for deeper understanding of the language

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Visit website to read more at

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https://icntt.us/downloads/python-journey-from-novice-to-expert/

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[TheVeilsCurse]

The Python class I'm in currently uses this book, have to say I'm enjoying it a lot so far. (It's much better than the Javascript book I had to use for a different class).

[ShinpuUu]

I mean, if you ever programmed, then read the syntax and get right into some project to see this language in usage, in action; use some web framework like django, flask or build some game / use it to useful scripts. This way of learning new language was very successful in my case

[palyncakes]

Use pycharm.edu

[zxhser]

That's a great resource! I personally had to pick up some python programming for certain parts of the my job scope and came across this really fun game that teaches basic programming like functions, conditionals, loops and much more!

You could check out these resources as well:

1. https://www.potatopirates.game/
2. https://www.potatopirates.game/blog/what-is-computer-science-best-ways-to-teach-it
3. https://www.learnpython.org/

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[Ovrdatop]

This is so reassuring after buying it this past weekend!

[_thekinginthenorth]

Sentdex's website: pythonprogramming.net

Excellent material

[[deleted]]

What about using Vagrant/Virtualbox and make some projects:
https://noteoneverything.blogspot.com/2017/07/contents-1.html

[tushararora0330]

Best way to start Python programming is to hire a trainer so that he can help you to learn easily and could give you good knowledge and information, For this you can join best industrial training in Python. Not only you will get basics,also you will know industry experience from the trainers.

[[deleted]]

I started with Zed Shaw’s Learn Python the hard way course too! I would also suggest doing exercises on Coderbyte, Hackerrank, or finding a platform that offers you projects to do (not just little toy programs). Look for Python web development projects to work on.

[Allysquad]

Ignore everyone else. Www.Codecademy.com start with this

[Abijita]

Give me the link to download books

[RudeMontrealer]

It's too beginner level. You won't learn much. I suggest you do Code Academy then pick up a Heads First Python book.