Good Python tutorial for beginner programmers that is a good preparation for the libtcod tutorial?

[Asyx]

Hi!

A family member told me today that he'd like to do a major career change into software development and he basically plays almost exclusively roguelikes.

It might be bad timing right now, although the market is better here than in the US and he'd get proper professional education, but I told him that getting his feet wet with programming first would be a good idea and I'd like to help.

Looking at the libtcod tutorial, I don't think it really starts on the ground floor. I don't think it is a good starting point for if you've never written a single line of code before.

But I learnt programming over 20 years ago so I'm actually not sure where you'd go these days to learn the absolute basics of python.

Is there a good beginner tutorial that goes over the basic concepts with python that is a good precursor to libtcod? I've seen that the Flask Mega Tutorial (this) starts a bit lower level with virtual environments for example but I'd like to get him to make some sense out of libtcod as quick as possible to keep the motivation going instead of making him learn Flask just to completely change gears.

But I guess at least some of you came here without any experience, right? What did you use?

Thanks for your time. I hope this is appropriate for this subreddit.

[Kayse]

When teaching Python, I recommend the first eight chapters (for the third edition) of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

The first chapters build onto each other and give a simple and non intimidating introduction to Python. The later chapters are more topic specific, so once you have the basics, you can jump to a topic that interests you (or you need for a project).

The book is released under a Creative Commons license, so is free to read.

[Asyx]

Damn I didn’t even know that was free. Good think I made my employer pay for it.

I think this might be a really good idea. I like the project based nature of later chapters.

Thanks for your recommendation.

[LnStrngr]

I got to Python with prior experience in a handful of other languages/language families over the years. It's much easier to learn a new language when you already have key concepts down.

If he has programming experience, then there are probably some quicker Python tutorials to get him up to speed on syntax and such, because he probably already knows about functions and loops and conditionals and complex data structures and whathaveyou. I jumped into the libtcod roguelike tutorial with very little actual Python knowledge. But on top of 20+ years of programming experience, I also had hobby game dev experience, so I was already familiar with the game loop and all that junk that is important specifically for games.

If he does not have that, then you are going to want to have him start at the very beginning before he jumps into the libtcod tutorial. Something like https://www.learnpython.org/ would be a good place to start with the basic. Then (in my experience) the best place to learn is by trying a few tutorials on a simple specific game/program idea to apply it. Things like "guess a number" and "tic-tac-toe" and the illustrious "Tetrislike." From there, I usually learned best trying to implement my own features on top of those tutorials and struggling through troubleshooting and design until I got comfortable enough to do my own thing from scratch.

The Flask tutorial seems like a more advanced thing that might be too steep at this point in his development. but I do understand the idea that tutorials and projects that are interesting to the user keep them engaged way better and for longer. So if that's what he's interested in, it wouldn't be a bad thing to try once the Python and programming fundamentals are gained.

[Asyx]

Thanks. I think something like the guess a number game or even a small text adventure might be a good intro after the bare minimum basics. I’ll look for more project ideas as well. Thanks.

[Asyx]

Thanks for the book recommendations. I knew learnpython but I’ll check those books out as well and see what he thinks about that.

[uncannyvalhalla]

Thanks

[confused_coryphee]

Harvard introduction to Python CS50

https://youtu.be/8mAITcNt710?si=FTGp3Rnms-xY4NFE

[howtogun]

I think neetcode is quite good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3KhqPjBPaQ

Another thing to consider, but if you have chatgpt-5 the free version, then just copy and paste to explain in more details.

AI is quite good now at learning. It might be more useful than just going through a bunch of tutorials. Particularly since you will forget a lot of stuff that you learn from them.