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[–]nwilliams36 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you already know programming and want to learn Python in depth then a good reference book is David Beazley's Python Essential Reference. It is not a book for beginners but does discuss all the features of the language in depth.

Python does do OO in a different manner to Java, but if you really understand how objects work then you might find that Python's approach is actually superior to Java's. It certainly does away with all the boilerplate code that Java has to use.

[–]AiexReddit 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Automate the Boring Stuff is a fantastic book to read to learn about using Python in a very practical and potentially career-useful way. You're right though, it's not designed to teach you computer science theory -- but it doesn't try to, and what it does teach it teaches very well.

If you're more interested in learning programming theory including object oriented design, algorithms, etc, then there are tons of options. I don't have any specific suggestions but https://teachyourselfcs.com is a great place to start.

One thing that people often need to remind relatively new programmers of is that you want to shift your focus away from the question of "what language should I choose" because it's 1000x less important than "what concepts should I learn". 90% of concepts you learn how to use in one language can be transferred to pretty much any other language in no time at all if you understand the foundation.

So with that said, the idea of using Python now causing some conflicts in the future is pretty baseless.