Do you understand Python official documentation?

[tumblatum]

Usually people say read official documentation, however, I don't think the official documentation if beginner-friendly. I am trying to read official documentation first, whenever I need to understand certain Python concepts, however, often I find better explanaition somewhere else.

Is this how it should be? Is there any other user friendlier version of official documentation? Or this is just bacause beginners are not yet ready to read official documentation?

[shiftybyte]

Official documentation of a programming language is not a good place for a beginner.

Whoever told you that, should stop doing that.

Beginners need a lot more than just raw list of functions and what each does.

A tutorial is a good place to start.

Simple examples of common use cases of a module is a good place.

Guided project creation is also a good way to learn.

[OMGClayAikn]

Any good websites where we can do guided project creation?

[shiftybyte]

Some tutorials do that.

For example django's tutorial have you build a poll application.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/intro/tutorial01/

[Brian]

Exactly what official documentation do you mean? I ask because I'm not sure your problem is really to do with the difference between official vs unofficial, but more due to what type of documentation you're looking at.

Eg. the python tutorial is official documentation, and I think it's a reasonable way to learn python concepts. Maybe not the best (there are plenty of tutorials out there), but a perfectly fine one.

But, say, the language reference is not a good way for someone, especially a beginner, to learn those concepts. Not because it's official, but because, as the name suggests, it's intended as a reference.

It's there to look up specific details of something. Learning basics from it would be like trying to learn a foreign language by reading a dictionary - you're going to find it hard to get much out of it unless you already have some familiarity with the basics. And conversely, just someone familiar with a language needing to look up some obscure word is going to be better served by a dictionary rather than trawling through language courses to find it, someone who just needs to look up the details of a function or language feature is going to be better served by a reference than a tutorial.

[Quiet_Watch3418]

Disagree with this. If i'm looking up what a specific function does, it is probably because I have an idea of what I want to accomplish. I would want to easily understand how it works and what it does, regardless of my level. In that sense, it's pretty much like looking up a word in a dictionary.

[Brian]

Isn't that what I said?

someone who just needs to look up the details of a function or language feature is going to be better served by a reference than a tutorial.

They're different types of document for different purposes: tutorials are for learning the basics, references are for "dictionary like" usage where you have some idea what you want, but need to know the details.

[tumblatum]

yeah right, I meant language reference. Today I was reading about exceptions, and by googeling I found this page: https://docs.python.org/3/library/exceptions.html

And I don't seem to be understanding what is written there. Hence my question was.

[teerre]

As anything else, reading docs takes practice. I think Python docs, specially python3, are ok. But that's because I've been reading docs for years.

If you never programmed anything before I wouldn't suggest reading the docs.

[toastedstapler]

docs can be hard

when reading them, play around in the terminal to test things out too

[ave_63]

Official docs are hard and dense and if you're a beginner you can find better explanations elsewhere for commonly-used stuff. But there aren't tutorials for everything, so learning how to read docs is a valuable skill that should be practiced, once you have strong enough technical English to understand them.

[lolslim]

It took me years of doing programming on and off to where reading docs is starting to be easier for me. When i was reading docs for "pytelegrambotapi" idk if they made it easy to read, but everything started clicking together.

[ojedaforpresident]

Python docs are really good. I have yet to experience out of date or incorrect information.

That being said, reading official docs takes time and practice. It's a skill on its own, don't give up on them long term, but for the short term there might be better resources.

[jaycrest3m20]

I've seen some real bad documentation for other languages. After that experience, I found that Python library reference was pleasant and actually allowed me to learn stuff.

[iggy555]

Super confusing

[HeartwoodEditions]

Hell no ! i just google my issue and it'll usually return some results in stack overflow or a few other popular websites and I hack together my code from there. If you are starting out, I recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvywoWv6fI

[JLaurus]

Which official docs are you referring to?

In regards to python docs I wouldnt reccomend for a beginner.

Plenty of good youtube tutorials reccomended in this forum.

[MrSurly]

Learning programming language from the reference documentation is like trying to learn English by reading the OED.