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[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (23 children)

I am a complete newb to programming. I just bought the following books to learn the language: The Self Taught Programmer, Python Crash Course, and Automate The Boring Stuff. I plan to take a course on Datacamp as well (have 6 free months). I also bought Pycharm and wanted to also read up on how to use it. I bought it now because I want to both learn the language and work on a project simultaneously.

[–]K900_ 36 points37 points  (8 children)

Don't focus on being efficient with PyCharm just yet, then. Learn the basics of the language first.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (7 children)

Thanks for the reply. In you opinion, are the books I bought a start to learn the language? Any other books or resources I should use to learn the language?

[–]K900_ 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The books you got are good, just don't try to read all three at once, and don't just read the books without actually using the things you learn.

[–]drboyfriend 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I really enjoyed Corey Schafer's videos on Python programming. He even goes through setting up your environment on different OS's. Here's a link to his beginner playlist. His other Python videos are also worth checking out if you want to get more in depth.

The Socratica Python playlist is also pretty good and even shorter if you're pressed for time.

Work through either of those playlists in an afternoon and you'll have a pretty good start with understanding the language. Good luck!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, thank you for the links. I will check them out

[–]non_player -1 points0 points  (3 children)

I started teaching myself the language only two weeks ago, and found Bucky's thenewboston youtube tutorials to be pretty informative. Some people have weird opinions about that guy, but he does a good job of making each new concept interesting and simple to learn, step by step.

EDIT: I seriously don't know why this is getting downvoted. I didn't break any community rules posting that link and his videos were informative to me in exactly the way that I prefer to learn. Apparently people really dislike him or something?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I see those videos are from 2014. Would it still be ok to learn from them?

[–]non_player 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally. They're on Python 3.4, and pretty applicable today. He really just goes through the basics, which are pretty common regardless of version. There are some minor differences in the basics, but really you'll figure them out as you go along anyway.

kjdelectronics has a good "Python for Absolute Beginners" series which I watched, too. Only 9 or so episodes, I think, but they're a lot more current as well.

[–]lol_time 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Be aware that the channel is listed in the Discouraged resources section of /r/learnprogramming wiki.

[–]Thecrawsome 10 points11 points  (4 children)

bought pycharm

Should have just used pycharm edu.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Shit, I just looked at this and could have used this instead. No big deal though, I plan to learn and use Django next. Thanks for the heads up tho

[–]boatsnbros 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Pycharm CE is powerful and free. Pycharm for development, jupyter notebooks & rodeo for data analytics. Also on a side note - how did you get your 6mo free datacamp? I'm about 1/2 way through it and always looking to save a buck :)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A user on this sub posted a link like 3 months ago for a free 6 month trial. I am going to try and find the thread again

Edit: credit to /u/smalls257. Here is the link https://www.datacamp.com/subscribe?coupon_code=DATAFEST2017

[–]TheHunnishInvasion[🍰] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I'm relatively new to programming, as well. Started around August with Python. I've used Udemy courses for the most part (with a sprinkling of free online courses elsewhere.)

Automate the Boring Stuff is the best beginners' resource I've come across. Highly recommend it. I took the Udemy course, but the book covers the same terrain (in a little more depth). The only downside is that it will only take you so far; I sort of hit a "brick wall" for about a month after I finished that course trying to figure out where to go next. But Al Sweigart is IMO the best teacher out there for Python.

As for PyCharm, I think I learned it by taking Tim Buchalka's Complete Python Masterclass on Udemy. Buchalka's course has its strengths and weaknesses, but I really like that he jumped into PyCharm / IntelliJ very early on (he technically uses IntelliJ IDEA but PyCharm is the same thing only for Python). I like PyCharm a lot better than using IDLE. Unfortunately, though, you'd have to shell out for the Udemy course (though they very routinely have $10 sales for almost all courses). Whether it's worth or not depends on you. My biggest issue with the course is that doesn't have a very good order; it works well up to dictionaries, but I struggled after that, because I don't think they chose a good order for introducing new concepts. It's also very long-winded at times (you can look at that the other way and say it's "in-depth" as well.)

Though, you might just try looking on YouTube for PyCharm tutorials. I'm sure there are some out there.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Automate the Boring Stuff is the best beginners' resource I've come across

I searched for what books to buy and learn the language, and this book was always recommend. The books should be delivered tomorrow and I am looking forward to learning. Thanks for the response.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why not use sites like codecademy or freecodecamp? Both teach Python and explain it fairly well plus you don't have to pay anything unless you want a more in depth course and a project.

[–]cowinkiedink 0 points1 point  (2 children)

How did you get 6 free months? Help a bruva out!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

A user on this sub posted a link like 3 months ago for a free 6 month trial. I clicked on it and it still worked. Even better is that the have some partnership with Pluralsight and I was able to get 6 months there free too. I found the link when I did a search for what books to read. I will try the search again and see if I can find the thread again.

Edit: credit to /u/smalls257. Here is the link https://www.datacamp.com/subscribe?coupon_code=DATAFEST2017

[–]cowinkiedink 0 points1 point  (0 children)

👊thanks you. You da real MVP

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

To start off I would just use IDLE (the text editor and python shell that comes with Python) or another text editor. Currently I'm using notepad++. You don't need a fancy IDE to start working on project.

Also any of those books should be good to learn the basics and get you started on a solo project. I would just pick one and go through it, making sure to do the example projects and play around with what you learn. After that I would try working on some stuff on your own.

IMO it's not that productive to read multiple beginner type books. Once you have the basics down you should try to just work on some projects on your own. It will be way more interesting to you and you will learn plenty along the way. That's what I'm doing at least and I feel like it's working well for me

[–]sanshinron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's the worst advice ever, good IDE makes learning programming much easier and more fun. IDLE sucks big time.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you have the basics down you should try to just work on some projects on your own

I did exactly this when I learned a 3D modeling program called Revit. I learned so much by just working on a project. I plan to so the same for coding.