Learn to Program Using Python: A Tutorial for Hobbyists, Self-Starters, and All Who Want to Learn the Art of Computer Programming

Most books that aim to teach a programming language assume some knowledge of programming in general. The target for this book is someone with no programming experience at all. Python is simply used as an example language. Python is a good language for such a person, given its clean sytax and underlying simplicity. I’ve had a little programming experience, and found the book very easy to read. Some of the explanations may be a bit terse for the complete novice. This is probably the books weakest point.

Gauld makes it very clear that the book isn’t designed to make the reader a Python expert, it is simply to get him or her up to speed on general programming ideas (e.g, loops, conditional statements, etc.), so that the reader can then move on to other books or tutorials (such as the Python tutorial on the included CD).

Overall, I think Gauld succeeds in his goal. There are other online resources with similar aims (the “How to think like a computer scientist” site comes to mind). But for those without constant internet access, this book is a great place to start. The complete novice would then be able to tackle something more substantial, such as /The Quick Python Book/ and/or /Learning Python/, or a book on another language (personally, I’d recommend they stick to Python for a while).
Rating: 4 / 5

Not a bad introduction to the basic concepts, and certainly better than most of the “teach yourself”, “learn foo in 15 minutes”, “foobar for dummies”, or the idiot guides. This book does not attempt to teach serious Python, instead focusing on the practice of program development with python as an example language. There are lots of “see the python documentation” type references to explain newly presented material. The basics of python are presented clearly, although a true novice will probably get lost and require some more clarification- that’s ok since it teaches how to learn more about the language. Don’t worry, the CDROM contains tutorials and there’s lots more available online. Each chapter is presented in pseudo-textbook style, complete with sometimes silly “things to ponder” (e.g. “It’s often said that laziness is a good quality in a programmer- can you think why that might be true?”). For the next edition a series of exercises and programming assignments would be useful, complete with answer keys on the CDROM.

The book can certainly include more about how programmers solve problems and create useful tools. Introducing a collection of “tricks of the trade” would help here (e.g. the ‘x = TRUE’, ‘while not TRUE’ conditional statements used so ubiquitously aren’t even mentioned). A chapter dedicated to simple algorithms would be nice as well (e.g. a sorting routine), and would make writing useful programs much easier for beginners. The large type and wide margins could be pared down a bit to include all of this without making a doorstop-like tome (a la wrox/”teach yourself” books).

With that said, there are some very good points in this book that make it a good choice. The book accomplishes its goal of “learn to program” using small, easily digested chapters that are quick reads. There are lots of examples and most importantly, examples of larger programs that are actually fun to write and modify (like the hangman prog.) One of the most helpful chapters for me was the chapter “Designing a solution”, aimed at getting a larger project going. Additionally, the book presents essential (but often overlooked) chapters on debugging and programming style.

As it stands, the book provides a solid foundation for the more comprehensive books (e.g. Kernighan and Ritchie’s “the C programming language”). With a few touchups this book could become an essential introduction to programming.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ve taught beginning programming at the Junior College level, and not a one of the texts I selected, were as lucid and well written as this one.

Especially strong in the introduction of Object programming, the author excels at terse yet appropriate code examples.

I’m recommending this book to everyone I know.
Rating: 5 / 5

This was my first introduction to Python with little programming experience in general. The author does a great job of ramping into examples containing ‘real world’ relevant code. This book is a refreshing change from the apparent trend of ‘the more pages, the better’ Material is condensed into small bite-sized chunks of 5-6 pages.
Rating: 5 / 5

I am 13, and know HTML and Visual Basic, Learning Python was easy. It goes through concepts so that you understand them this book is great. I thought learning Python was going to be hard since it is a great language and is very useful on the Web and software, this is definetly a great book and I advise everyone to read it.

P.S. if a 13 year old can do it so can you
Rating: 5 / 5