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by: Chris Fehily  List Price: $21.99 Amazon.com's Price: $14.95 You Save: $7.04 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 005.133 EAN: 9780201748840 ISBN: 0201748843 Label: Peachpit Press Manufacturer: Peachpit Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 440 Publication Date: November 05, 2001 Publisher: Peachpit Press Studio: Peachpit Press Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: Named after the Monty Python comedy troupe, Python is an interpreted, open-source, object-oriented programming language. It's also free and runs portably on Windows, Mac OS, Unix, and other operating systems. Python can be used for all manner of programming tasks, from CGI scripts to full-fledged applications. It is gaining popularity among programmers in part because it is easier to read (and hence, debug) than most other programming languages, and it's generally simpler to install, learn, and use. Its line structure forces consistent indentation. Its syntax and semantics make it suitable for simple scripts and large programs. Its flexible data structures and dynamic typing allow you to get a lot done in a few lines. To learn it, you'll need is some basic programming experience and a copy of Python: Visual QuickStart Guide. In patented Visual QuickStart Guide fashion, the book doesn't just tell you how to use Python to develop applications, it shows you, breaking Python into easy-to-digest, step-by-step tasks and providing example code. Python: Visual QuickStart Guide emphasizes the core language and libraries, which are the building blocks for programs. Author Chris Fehily starts with the basics - expressions, statements, numbers, strings - then moves on to lists, dictionaries, functions, and modules before wrapping things up with straightforward discussions of exceptions and classes. Some additional topics covered include:- Object-oriented programming- Working in multiple operating systems- Structuring large programs- Comparing Python to C, Perl, and Java- Handling errors gracefully. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Clear, smart and simple - A brilliant bookI've always wanted to be able to fully master a programming language, but have found it hard to learn an entire language. Things either got too advanced too early, or I simply lost motivation half way through the book. Python seemed interesting being platform independent and suitable for many different tasks like console, gui, web, game programming and so on. Maybe there are good tutorials out there, but none of them really got me going. What I needed was a book, and I wanted nothing ... Read More Rating:  - Beware: Now an on-demand reprintAmazon doesn't allow us to rate the quality of an author's work separately from the publisher's presentation. That's unfortunate, because as an introductory guide to Python this is quite a good work. Unfortunately, as of 3/07, it's also being published by Peachpit Press as an "on-demand reprint". There is nothing in the Amazon product description to tell you about this change, and indeed I'm not sure Amazon has any way of knowing about it. If you bought this book in a bookstore you'd ... Read More Rating:  - Brevity is the soul of wit, and utility in this case,This review paraphrases and expands on a review I posted on Slashdot. As a small and simple tutorial guide I've enjoyed this book. Most of the examples are for the command line. This will encourage you to experiment and play. Creative play is where good programmers come from. It's not going to teach you how to write a big app or become a graphics wizard. It's certainly not suitable as your only reference book. It will give you an excellent introduction to the language in ... Read More Rating: - Justifies the titleThis book lives up to it's promise of being a visual quickstart guide. The concepts are explained clearly with tons of examples - in fact, there are very few pages that don't have examples. The 'Tips' sections are pretty useful. The book is also tastefully laid out and the publishers have stuffed the pages with just the right amount of information. If you are a programmer trying to come up to speed on Python over a weekend, then this is the book for you. Folks who send lot of time in airports or ... Read More Rating: - New to Python? This book is the best.I purchased and read several Python books. Python Visual Quickstart Guide made for somewhat dry reading first time through. But when I sat down to write my first Python program, I soon found that this was the book I wanted open in front of me all the time. The book covers all the basics. Between the table of contents, the index, and the way the book is organized, finding what you need is almost always easy -- more so than any of the other books that I bought. 
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