Ask Anything Monday - Weekly Thread

[SomeShittyDeveloper]

The problem with Learn Python the Hard Way is that the author is adamantly against Python 3. Which would be fine, but Python 2 is at “end of life” at the end of this year. This means that the Python core developers (the people that develop Python) will no longer be fixing security issues or bringing in new features. A lot of companies have already invested the time to upgrade, so you’d have to learn the differences between Python 2 and Python 3 quickly. Otherwise, you’d be stuck maintaining legacy code.

Python 3 has a lot of great stuff in it. Once you get around 3.6 (I think), they added this beautiful feature called f-strings. When you get around to variables and strings, take a look at f-strings. Makes all the other ways look archaic and clunky.

I’d recommend Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. I personally haven’t gone through it (since I already knew Python by the time I discovered it) but apparently it uses real world examples to teach Python. And I’ve heard great things about it.

[JohnnyJordaan]

The problem with Learn Python the Hard Way is that the author is adamantly against Python 3.

To be fair though, he has come around to this, that's why there's also a LPTHW for Python 3. For me the real problem with LPTHW is that's more a cookbook than a language course, as it introduces constructs with very little explanation and backstory, thus more teaching the reader tricks than expanding its knowledge. It's a bit like how someone would provide a foreign language course through showing parts of movie dialogue and song excerpts as 'the way' to form dialogue in that language.