I was just wondering ( yeah I know it's not the first time this
question pops up )
what would be the best 2 or 3 books for someone who wants to learn
Python , already experienced in other non-OOP languages .
I see three types of books; one type for initial learning, one for
reference, and one for advanced topics, exploring and obtaining further
detail.
For me, as a book for learning, Mark Lutz And David Ascher's "Learning
Python" can't be beat in the book arena (although there are a lot of free
online tutorials that occupy the same space and do the task very well,
too; but you asked about books).
With all respect to Lutz and Ascher, I would recommend seeing if you can
borrow the LP book, rather than purchasing it, or purchase a used copy.
Again, I found it great for learning, but once I learned Python, never had
any urge to look at it again.
(LP is now recently in its second edition, so the chances of borrowing or
buying used a copy of the current edition is probably pretty slim;
however, I had no problem learning python from the 1st edition, even while
using Python 2.x; the core of the language is not changed much, and the
changes can be picked up from looking at the "What's New" files, other
books, and participation in fora like this one. On the other hand,
there's nothing like getting a good take on the current language from the
start. Depends on your patience, mind-set and budget, I suppose.)
There are a few candidates for reference books. The one I like (a *lot*)
is Alex Martelli's "Python in a Nutshell." However, the real reason I
like it so much is that, while it's mostly a reference book, it begins the
slide toward an advanced topics book. This makes it great for learning
new areas (like debugging, unit testing, Internet programming, etc.), as
well as serving as a pure reference. The downside, I guess, is that it
probably is not quite as good as a pure reference would be (or else it
would be several times the size and cost that it is); but it hits the
sweet spot for me.
There are other books in this category, too. One is David Beazley's
"Python Essential Reference," a borrowed first edition of which I used
when I was just starting in Python. The Beazley book is also very, very
good. My preference is for the Martelli book, because it's less of a pure
reference, but that same attribute may be a point that would drive you to
the Beazley book. Personal preference.
There are others that I haven't read, too: Martin Brown's "Python: the
Complete Reference," and Dave Brueck and Stephen Tanner's "Python 2.1
Bible." I've never seen Brown's book, so I can't comment on it. I have
browse Brueck and Tanner's, and it looks very good, as I recall, giving
more detail on GUI and things like that. If I didn't already have a
pretty full python library, I'd probably have bought it.
In the third category, I like the Python Cookbook, edited by Alex Martelli
and David Ascher. I keep that one in my bathroom and read random short
Python recipes. The Cookbook is great for giving examples of useful
working code in a number of areas.
A popular candidate here is Mark Lutz's "Programming Python," but I found
it useless for me. What I disliked about it is the inability to look up
things by topic and find a useful discussion of that topic. The book is
highly integrated, and if you open it to, say, Chapter 5, you'll need to
have read chapters 1-4 to follow the discussion in chapter 5. I think PP
might be a good book as a course textbook, where there is a sequence of
topics treated in a structured environment; but for self-directed
education *for me*, it fails.
I want to emphasize the *for me* in the above; there are a lot of people
in this newsgroup who love this book, so its usefulness is a highly
personal judgment. It might be great for you.
Also in that third category, you might find yourself drawn to some
specific topic in Python, and want a less general advanced book. Examples
are Jones and Drake's "Python and XML," if you're interested in XML; or
Grayson's "Python and Tkinter Programming," if you're particularly
interested in GUI programming using Tkinter.
I'll also join in in recommending the various excellent and free web pages
that provide a lot of good Python information. But you were asking about
books, and I understand the appeal that a book has over an online
resource, so I'm limiting discussion to books.
