Unfortunate newbie questions!

[CPIM Ronin]

Hi Folks,

I'm brand spanking new to Python, busy reading docs and going through two of
the ubiquitous O'Reilly books--"Learning Python" by Lutz/Ascher and "Python
Programming on Win32" by Hammond/Robinson.

Still I have a just few newbie questions:

- In the Windows Python version, how can it be configured
to save all keyboard input for later review and revision?
And how do I get to it?

- What book or doc would you recommend for a thorough
thrashing of object oriented programming (from a Python
perspective) for someone who is weak in OO? In other
words, how can someone learn to think in an OO sense,
rather than the old linear code sense? Hopefully, heavy
on problems and solutions!

- In college, I came to admire the Schaum's Outline book
approach--again heavy on problems and solutions! What's
the closest Python equivalent?

Thanks.

RC

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[Colin J. Williams]

Hi Folks,

I'm brand spanking new to Python, busy reading docs and going through
two of the ubiquitous O'Reilly books--"Learning Python" by Lutz/Ascher
and "Python Programming on Win32" by Hammond/Robinson.

Still I have a just few newbie questions:

- In the Windows Python version, how can it be configured
to save all keyboard input for later review and revision?
And how do I get to it?

Either PythonWin or the basic Python interactive shell can do most of
the work here. Best to play with the various library functions.

- What book or doc would you recommend for a thorough
thrashing of object oriented programming (from a Python
perspective) for someone who is weak in OO? In other
words, how can someone learn to think in an OO sense,
rather than the old linear code sense? Hopefully, heavy
on problems and solutions!

No suggestion here. I like Alex Martelli's Python in a Nutshell but
it's getting a bit long in the tooth now.

Colin W.

 

[Alessandro Bottoni]

- What book or doc would you recommend for a thorough

thrashing of object oriented programming (from a Python
perspective) for someone who is weak in OO? In other
words, how can someone learn to think in an OO sense,
rather than the old linear code sense? Hopefully, heavy
on problems and solutions!

If OOP is the problem, you could try this:
Object Oriented Analysys
Peter Coad, Edward Yourdon
Prentice Hall
Old by quite informative

As an alternative, have a look at the following ones.

Thinking in Python:
http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIPython

Dive into Python:
http://diveintopython.org/

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist:
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/

- In college, I came to admire the Schaum's Outline book
approach--again heavy on problems and solutions! What's
the closest Python equivalent?

Maybe this:

Python Cookbook
Alex Martelli, David Ascher
O'Reilly

HTH

 

[aleaxit]

Alessandro Bottoni wrote:
...

Maybe this:

Python Cookbook
Alex Martelli, David Ascher
O'Reilly

I'd rather suggest the 2nd edition, who's by Alex Martelli, Anna
Martelli Ravenscroft, and David Ascher -- it IS a better book, believe
me.


Alex

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

Still I have a just few newbie questions:

- In the Windows Python version, how can it be configured
to save all keyboard input for later review and revision?
And how do I get to it?

The same way you'd do it on any other operating system... Use a text
editor. Most Python installs include the IDLE IDE, which has a syntax
aware editor. The ActiveState Windows Python install includes the
PythonWin IDE, which also has syntax aware editing.

Of course, in both IDEs, you have to remember to open a new file
window and not type stuff at the interactive console (If you are seeing
">>>" prompts, you are in the interactive console -- good for testing
short snippets, but not for creating big programs).
--

 

[Chris Lasher]

I would have to say that never having done any OO programming before in
my life, I found _Learning_Python_ by Lutz & Ascher had a great couple
of chapters on it. The diagrams about inheritance and subclassing
really helped a lot and they describe the purpose of using OOP quite
well. I see you already have that book, so perhaps you are not far
enough into it yet to hit those chapters. I think they did a great job
getting me off to a good start.

For a follow-up book, I second the recommendation of Mark Hammond's
_Dive_Into_Python_, which is mentioned above. It's a wonderful way to
learn by example. I absolutely ate up the chapters about Unit Testing.