Beginners' python books

[bunburya]

Hello all, I hope this is the right place to put this.

I have absolutely no experience with computer programming but would like to learn a bit more about it in my spare time. I have decided to try and learn about Python (is this a good choice?) because I have heard it is easy enough to pick up but it is also useful.

I've been looking at the documentation available on the Python website and it's very helpful, but I was thinking of purchasing a book which would help me gain a better understanding of the language and everything it has to offer. Can anyone suggest any? I had a glance at what's available in the local bookshop and the titles that struck me as being potentially helpful were "Python for Dummies" or "Python 3 for Absolute Beginners" from APRESS (I have Python 2.6--is there a big difference)? Does anyone know if these would be helpful for a noob such as myself, or recommend anything else?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[dondiego2]

Try checking out the python411 podcast. His website has a lot of recommendations.

http://www.awaretek.com/python/

[lykwydchykyn]

Python's a good choice IMHO.

There is a major difference between Python 2.x and Python 3. A lot of syntax was changed, a lot of functions were dropped. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend learning Python 3 so you don't have to un-learn python 2 whenever it goes away.

One of the best free books for python has always been "Dive into python", and there's a version for python 3.

http://diveintopython3.org/

[diesch]

http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers has a nice list

[masque7]

Here are a couple that I use that you may want to try.

(http://%20http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2813752/byteofpython_120.pdf)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2813752/byteofpython_120.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2813752/thinkpython.pdf

[limestone]

Here's python lessons from scratch http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston

[wojox]

Follow this link Python Tutorials (http://www.awaretek.com/tutorials.html)

[juancarlospaco]

Maybe is strange but i learn first to make the GUI(frontend)
and then to make the BackEnd,
my first programs does nothing,
then a text editor, photo viewer... and more complex now

[PrototypeAlex]

Thanks for the site dondiego2, the site has a Numpy tutorial which is what I was after for learning machine learning. <-- to tired to think of something witty to replace the doubled up 'learning'...