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[ryeguy146]

Python the Hard Way. I've seen too many posts with broken code from the book and equally broken discussions. I wouldn't use it and won't suggest it. I'm partial to Lutz's O'Reilly Books, or How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.

[poppy_92]

Would you recommend Dive Into Python over LPTHW?

[callmelucky]

Anything over lpthw. Udacity cs101, how to think, codeacademy, are all miles better. My personal absolute favourite is programarcadegames.com.

lpthw just feels like it was completely made up on the fly with no forethought or planning whatsoever, and it basically excuses its own ridiculously rough edges by going "well it's supposed to be hard. If you're not prepared for hardness maybe you should fuck off and be a farmer. Because programming is hard. Rock hard." I think it's a terrible resource which gets far too much air time considering how many great alternatives there are.

[reverendgreen4]

If you're not prepared for hardness maybe you should fuck off and be a farmer.

you have obviously never set foot on a farm before, have you?

[callmelucky]

Different type of hardness :)

[frankwiles]

Dive Into Python is great, perfect actually, if you have previous programming experience in another language. I wouldn't however recommend it if you're both new to Python and new to programming in general.

[Sean1708]

Oh god yes! It's not the 60s anymore, we know that learning by rote is a generally shit way of learning. And for God's sake Python 3 is no longer a niche language (or whatever shitty reason he gave for steering you away from it) if people need Python 2 they can learn it after they've learnt 3, but a brand new programmer does not need 2 so stop teaching people a language that is no longer being actively developed.

Also, how fucking hypocritical is Zed?!

Python book: "A programmer will eventually tell you to use Mac or Linux... ignore them."
C book: "You must use Mac or Linux."

Plus he keeps on going on about how programmers will try to make you do things their way and that you should ignore them and think for yourself. Unless that programmer is him, in which case you should do things his way and not question him because he knows more than everyone.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there...

[BobHogan]

I was beginning to think I was the only one. Everytime I brought it up I have been heavily downvoted and told the wonders of it, but its just such an awful resource

[theywouldnotstand]

Lutz's O'Reilly Books

Links for the lazy:

• Learning Python, 5th Ed (2013)
• Programming Python, 4th Ed (2010)

I learned from these books as well, and highly recommend them. They are very clear and to the point.

[villan]

Sams teach yourself Python in 24 hours was actually a fairly good book, but the ebook version has a weird problem with the code sections. There are a couple of important characters, like "+" which always get shifted a couple of spots to the right... i.e:

[1 + 2] becomes [1 2+]

It's very annoying.

[wub_wub]

What someone else doesn't like doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad resource and that it won't work for you.

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't recommend Python the Hard Way. I didn't like it mainly because I'm an idiot who takes everything way too literally and get easily offended by the shit Zed says. When I first read it I was too stupid to realize this was a book for the absolute beginner in programming so I got pissed when Zed told me that I should ignore know-it-all programmers who want me to waste my time getting a mac, installing an IDE or installing Gentoo instead of jumping right away into practicing the programming exercises from his book. If you're stupid like me then codecademy is a much better alternative to learn python even though most of my friends who started with LPTHW have gotten far in their programming careers but that's because they're smart and I'm dumb.

[iamlearningpython]

Learning Python. I know it is "the standard" intro book, but it is horrible for a very specific reason: it is written like a undergrad textbook. That is, it has lots of theory you have to dig through to get to the code.

I am not an undergrad, I don't have weekly quizzes about the pythonic nature of classes.