Learning Python using a book based on version 1.5

[dogatemycomputer]

Greetings,

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in
24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best Regards,
Dave

[Frederick Polgardy]

On Aug 22, 3:27 pm, "[e-mail]"
<[e-mail]:

Greetings,

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in
24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

Yes, you should really toss it. I mean, sure, there's a lot of Python
1.5 that's still here, but there have been major changes in every
minor version since 2.0.

Fred

[Matt McCredie]

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in

24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

I'm sure it contains a fair amount of relevant information. The
problem is, it will also contain irrelevant information and there is
no way to tell the difference. There definitely some better resources
out there. Here are some good free online ones:

http://docs.python.org/tut/
http://www.diveintopython.org/

-Matt

[dogatemycomputer]

http://docs.python.org/tut/http://ww...ntopython.org/

I'm dense so the online python docs make great sources for reference
points and they help clarify ambiguity but its too dry (without enough
sample code) to help me fully understand the concepts.

I think Dive Into Python would probably be a better choice. I'll
pickup the book this weekend!

Thanks for the help!!

[7stud]

do**************@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings,

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in
24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best Regards,
Dave

The Sam's 24 hour books are wonderful tutorials(who wants to waste
more than 24 hours learning a language), and the fact that it's based
on python 1.5 shouldn't make any difference.

[James Stroud]

do**************@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings,

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in
24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best Regards,
Dave

If you want to make a decision based on a quorum, I would suggest to not
bother with that book. Yes the SAMS TY books are usually great
(especially anything Laura Lemay), but you if you use a 1.5 book, you
will be learning some stuff you will *need* to unlearn at the expense of
learning things you should know.

I think the online tutorial is the way to go, or the newest Learning
Python from Lutz. After that, check out TPIP (Mertz) or the Programming
Python book from Lutz (for a global-esque view of the python world).
Maybe even think about the Cookbook (ed. Martelli).

Dive-Into-Python starts with one of those "Don't worry about what all
this means" examples, which I tend to hate and so I never got passed the
first example--it may get better as you go judging from all of its
proponents.

James

[Steve Holden]

James Stroud wrote:

do**************@gmail.com wrote:

>Greetings,

A friend of mine dropped off a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Python in
24 Hours published in 2000. I skimmed the first couple of chapters
looking for the interpreter version and the book was based on version
Python version 1.5.

Is this book still relevant? Should I toss it and look for something
newer?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best Regards,
Dave

If you want to make a decision based on a quorum, I would suggest to not
bother with that book. Yes the SAMS TY books are usually great
(especially anything Laura Lemay), but you if you use a 1.5 book, you
will be learning some stuff you will *need* to unlearn at the expense of
learning things you should know.

I think the online tutorial is the way to go, or the newest Learning
Python from Lutz. After that, check out TPIP (Mertz) or the Programming
Python book from Lutz (for a global-esque view of the python world).
Maybe even think about the Cookbook (ed. Martelli).

Dive-Into-Python starts with one of those "Don't worry about what all
this means" examples, which I tend to hate and so I never got passed the
first example--it may get better as you go judging from all of its
proponents.

I'm not sure I'd agree here. Certainly you will learn things that can be
updated as you get to newer versions of Python, but there are relatively
few backward incompatibilities, so your code will mostly work in newer
versions without (too many) modifications.

By all means look for something newer, but don't let that search stop
you from getting started with the book you have.

Andrew Kuchling has written a great series of "What's new in Python X.Y"
articles that can bring you up to date relatively quickly once you are
fluent in version 1.5. Start with:

http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.0/new-python

And welcome to the Python community.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
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