Python

Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself -- 24 Hours)

Format: Paperback
Author: Ivan Van Laningham
ReleaseDate: 15 May, 2000
Publisher: Sams
Rating:

Need an Aneurysm, this book should do the trick...
. .. this book is garbage, and that's exactly where the book is now. In the garbage. The author needs to go back to school and get educated in the english language. He is very knowledgable in programming, he lacks the ability to put his thoughts in english that others can understand. He stops his thought half way through sentences. He has run on sentences, typo's, combined with the fact that he NEVER explains a single piece of code in the book completely, he famous lines in the book are "we'll discuss that later" which never happens, and "do you remember this?" NO, BECAUSE YOU NEVER EXPLAINED IT!!! Very frustrating, and i'm an undergrad student that has been punching out code in Java for 3 years, and I'm totally lost, how is that possible? 2 simple words for this book, don't bother. Get this book, it's much better: ISBN# 0-13-026036-3 - Core Python Programming by Wesley J. Chun.

Not pratical for learning any useful programming
But I cannot get past the author's incessesant penchant for the mayan calendar. I have tried making my way through this book many times. I did not find any use in going through code snippets (which are very hard to read, they are screenshots in small font)that taught me how to manipulate dates (leap years, mayan calendars etc. ) I found this approach extremely boring. Infusing text with an occasionally comment of marginal wit, does not make it entertaining.

The only redeeming portion of this book it that it does include a good introduction to Tkinter. I just wish someone with a better understanding of instructional writing had written it.

Like so many other Python books, does every introduction to subjects such as funtions, classes, objects and methods have to be about spam? I know where python got its name. . . but enough already!.

save your money
the teaching style is so scatterbrained that it useless to a beginner. the worst python book i have ever read. the code snippets are worthless because he uses elements in the code,that have not been fully explained yet,stating that "we will discuss that in chapter whatever" then expects you to build on code you don't fully understand. this book reads like it was slapped together in a long weekend. my copy is already in the dumpster.