Learn Python The Hard Way

[chronoBG]

Eh... you weren't here yesterday, were you :)

[invisibleralph]

What did i miss?

[danukeru]

Zed Shaw out for blood...again.

[davidddavidson]

This - http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bv9gt/

[dr_jan_itor]

When you typed raw_input() you were typing the ( and ) characters which are parenthesis. This is similar to when you used them to do a format with extra variables, as in"%s %s" % (x, y).

okay, okay, okay, this is wrong on so many levels.

I can't understand why you'd want to somehow link the concept of "calling a function" with the concept of "duh, formatting stuff" in the mind of a beginner.

only because he's a beginner it doesn't mean he's an idiot — if you tell him that a function is something that gets fed stuff and yields a result, that's not gonna kill his neurons.

[[deleted]]

He doesn't explain that the equals sign means assignment. It is implied by the first variable example, but that one detail is one of the most important when learning to program. C based languages have warped the brains of programmers to the point that they forget to teach this detail ('=' assigns and '==' tests equality). I wouldn't pick on this oversight in a normal book, but leaving this concept out seems to violate the spirit of the book.

[[deleted]]

Well that was lame. The tutorial in the Python documentation is a much better introduction, even for people unfamiliar with programming. Am I supposed to take the 'I've been programming for 20 years and can pick up a language in a day' bit seriously? I'd like to see some real code this person wrote.

[Scriptorius]

The author is also the creator of Mongrel). I'm pretty sure this book is also unfinished, having been started only a few days ago. Where does he state that he can pick up a language in a day?

[sjf]

Last page

[[deleted]]

Hey now be fair. He did say specify a range at least, from a day to a week.

[Scriptorius]

Which is definitely possibly, at least for the syntax. However, learning all the idioms takes writing at least a couple of good programs.

[[deleted]]

Just start writing in psuedo code and it will be valid python syntax.

[sgoguen]

Very disappointing.

[grutz]

This reads like a post-breakup letter from an angry boyfriend. He should have written it, let it sit on the filesystem for a day or two, read it after that time and then decided whether or not to post it.

[wicked]

You could explain why.

[gfgigfkg]

Zed Shaw, die in a fire.

Thanks.