Learning Python for a new beginner

[Lisa Horton]

I hear that Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is
easier than PHP or Pearl? Is it as useful as those two? I am attracted
to Python as a first language, but I just want to be sure I will be
able to use it.

Opinions, thoughts, thanks!

 

[Nick Coghlan]

I hear that Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is
easier than PHP or Pearl? Is it as useful as those two? I am attracted
to Python as a first language, but I just want to be sure I will be
able to use it.

Opinions, thoughts, thanks!

I suggest grabbing the 2.4 Python interpreter and the tutorial from
www.python.org (if you're on Windows, the tutorial is included with the installer).

There are also resources like "Dive into Python" that may be useful.

With respect to PHP, I have no opinion, since I've never needed to use it. With
respect to Perl, I find it to be such an inconsistent dog's breakfast that I
have the docs page open whenever I have to write or read it. With Python, I
first used it for one subject at University, and was able to pick it back up a
few years later without even looking at the documentation.

Cheers,
Nick.

 

[Piet]

Hi Lisa,

I hear that Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is
easier than PHP or Pearl?

Most people think so, though personal experiences can vary. I played
around wit hPerl for some time but never got really far. Python, on
the other hand, attracted me from the first minute.
Don´t be fooled: Learning and mastering Python requires work and
brains, but that is the price you have to pay anyways. It helps you to
develop at your personal pace from beginner to advanced, and it does
so without throwing completely new constructs in your brain every day.
It comes bundled with some built-in tools for writing, editing and
running programs, good and user-friendly documentation (which appears
to be better organized than Perl´s doc), and a lot of built-in
functions to handle data structures and files in an easily tractable,
easily remembered way. By learning Python, you will also learn some
advanced concepts (if you want) that could help you to understand the
basics of more advanced languages like C++ and Java. Combine that with
fine community support and a lot of free third-party modules (you
won´t need all of them on your first day, but it is nice to know that
they are out there), and I would say that you have all you need in the
best way you can get to start your programming career.


BW
Piet

 

[Alan McIntyre]

I hear that Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is
easier than PHP or Pearl? Is it as useful as those two? I am attracted
to Python as a first language, but I just want to be sure I will be
able to use it.

Opinions, thoughts, thanks!

I haven't done much with Perl, but I did try to learn enough PHP a
couple of years ago to do some web development. It wasn't too bad, but
it seemed tough to get started for some reason. My experience with
Python wasn't like that - it didn't seem to take very long at all to get
comfortable with it and start using it for real projects at work (maybe
2-3 months of learning it in my spare time).

I still use Python for >90% of my projects at work. In over 2 years, I
haven't run into any situations where I had good reason to choose
anything else. The stuff built into the language and the libraries that
come as part of the standard Python distribution have made my life a lot
easier than it ever was when I was only using C/C++.

Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on what sort of programming
you'd like to do.

Hope this helps,
Alan McIntyre
http://www.esrgtech.com