Penguin Random House Python Crash Course

I have experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I wanted to start fresh on a new language. For some reason, Python seemed very attractive and I made a commitment to learn it in 2016. After taking a few courses at Treehouse, I decided I would like a book, because there is something about text that feels more concrete than videos. This book stood out to me so I gave it a shot, and I am glad I did. The tone of this book is very easy going. It's moderately paced, so it feels like you are always learning something new, but not going too fast, and the book also never gets boring. It's very similar to other learning books, in that every new concept builds from the previous, etc...but Eric writes in such a way that there is no intimidation. Just a great style of writing. One of my favorite parts of this book is that every chapter has "Try It Yourself" sections that give you objectives based on what you've been learning about. I know other textbooks have similar offerings at the end of chapters, but these seem to blend in with the material so well, and they're nothing complicated. They're like friendly reinforcements to the concepts you just learned about, and a great jumpstart to get coding. Crash Course covers Python 3, and highlights the areas where Python 2 would be different. Eric also gives lessons on styling, and best practices, yet also says to just focus on getting things to work and go back later to make it more efficient, which I think is excellent advice and as I mentioned before, removes intimidation from anyone who might be worried they aren't up to par to code. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an introduction to Python. This will help start the foundation.

Content: For people with little or no object-oriented programming language background. The first chapter shows you step-by-step on downloading and installing Python and subsequent chapters (2 - 11) introduces readers with examples and applications so readers can follow and learn by doing. First few chapters can be done spending an hour a day through one, later chapters (9 - 11) have more dense content creating functions, classes and files that has more information to absorb. If a reader has other object-oriented programming language background, such as C, C++, Java, VB.Net, etc., and already knows the general behaviors and capabilities of object-oriented languages, this book may be a little bit elementary and progresses a little slower than one might expect. Result: Allows readers get a feeling of how Python works, and serving as a stepping stone for reader to learn more about Python easier from other sources quickly. Great primer. Comparison: I've also bought " Learning Python, 5th Edition " by O'Reilly 5th edition with 1648 pages (big book!), though immensely detailed and gets into very advanced for each syntax and introduces short-cuts along the way, I found it much harder to get an introduction to or feeling of Python as a programming language, but after using this book "Python Crash Course," I flipped through "Learning Python" by O'Reilly and looking at other sources, I can learn from them very quickly.

First of all, I'm neither a novice nor an expert programmer. I have successfully programmed in many languages over the course of my career as an electrical engineer. Mostly however, I just learned enough to code up whatever was required to solve a specific problem. This book is a good, from the ground up, organized approach to learning basic Python. It won't make you an expert and I can't imagine it will make you employable, but it is a good start and will prepare you to move on. I liked the programming chapters and to some extent I enjoyed the projects. I found that the projects relied too much on just entering calls to add-in programs and didn't provide much insight into what was actually happening. I successfully built the aliens game and that provided some insight into pygame and the use of python. The data analysis project was very illustrative about the capabilities of using python and graphics addins. The Django section however, was maddening. It is possible that because I used PyCharm as my IDE but I was continually getting hung up on one trivial mis-step after another. I suspect that the only way to get successfully through the project is to use the exact IDE, python version, and Django version that the author used. At one point, for instance I was hung up for several days before I found that some particular Django call was known to not work in Python 3.7 and required 3.7.1. So I upgraded to 3.8 and the latest version of Django then got hung up on something else that didn't work even though I resorted to just pasting in the code from the book ( this occurred in the logins section). So I have now abandoned the book and will move on to something else. Somewhat disappointing to get this far and find a case of diminishing returns. Overall, it is a good book and an achievement for the author. It is clear that he has a lot of insight and has done a lot of work.

I have tried to take several (free) online courses in Python from some of the big names, but never made it past the first screen. I always stopped because none of them explained the bigger picture or gave real-world examples of why something like append is useful beyond completing some exercises in a course. So I can add something to the end of a list? So what? This book, on the other hand, explains how what you're learning might apply to your actual job/life. I'm only on chapter 4, but thus far have learned more than I did completing a bunch of exercises on a popular "learn to code" site or attempting to make it past the first screen in an online course. Other things I like about this book (listed in no particular order, even though I'm presenting it as an ordered list!) 1. conversational tone 2. lists of common errors 3. instructions on how to check for and install Python and other stuff you need to do the exercises 4. chunking and organization of the content (he definitely followed the Goldilocks rule--not too much and not too little in each section) 5. everything! Maybe if you're fluent in a bunch of programming languages, this book might be too basic. I don't know because I'm not that person. For someone like me, however, who only knows HTML and CSS (which don't really count), this book is just right.

This book really helped. Best decision I ever made for my job was read this book, and follow along with it. I did not do the games in the book, but I bet they are just as fun as the first part. This book taught me you do not have to be a expert, just have to get things to work. Focus on perfecting it when you understand what is under the hood. After a week looking at this book I started building small programs at work to help automate some time consuming basic tasks. Now some of the things that made my head hurt thinking about doing, are fun and easy. And no mistakes, so that is a plus too. Who cares if there is grammatical errors, or some minor syntax mistakes in it, the narrative and the flow are exactly what I needed to progress and learn something I never thought I could..(No i am not a expert in Python because of this book, but at least I know what it does and how to start using it now) I would recommend before you start reading and following along is to install Geany, and watch a few youtube videos on how Geany works. Hell watch them while your waiting for the book to be delivered :) No one is perfect, don't judge on perfection, because that in and of itself is imperfect.

I decided to learn Python to create automation tests for QA. I've been reading code for a while, but only to get the general idea of what's supposed to happen. This book is geared for beginners and does not make the process intimidating. I've gone through the whole book in about a week and I feel like I've gotten the concepts down pretty well. You will not be an expert after reading the book and doing all of the exercises. However this does teach the basics and points you in the right direction. My confidence in my ability to continue learning and improving my coding skills is very high. Actually using Python and learning from your mistakes is what will make you an expert. I expect to refer back to this book frequently in the next year or so until all of this information becomes second nature. The book itself is high quality. There is a series of books on Python by the publisher and though I've only purchased one other ("Automate the Boring Stuff with Python") it is of the same physical quality and its content looks to be as friendly and educational as this one.

Over the course of the last 7 or 8 months I've completed Learn Python the Hard Way, a Coursera Course, maybe another short online course, and this book. I gotta say, this book is my favorite of them all. I feel like it's hard for some authors to understand what a beginner is thinking because what's obvious for a pro is sometimes not so obvious to a beginner. With that being said, the author is great at understanding his audience. Everything is written is straight English. There were many times in Python the Hard Way that i found myself saying, "But....how did you get this?" or "Did i miss some section where this was talked about?" but not with this book. Like i said, I started this book AFTER going through all those other materials so I'm not sure how it would fair with someone who is starting at absolute zero, but my honest opinion is that if i had started here and moved on i would have perhaps been a bit further at this point. To sum up, it's a great buy and well worthy of your time if you're trying to get some basic Python knowledge. Extra kudos for writing examples in both Python 2.7 and 3.

I would like this book to be considered separately from the actual physical product. The contents of this book are very clear, pretty easy, fun to follow which makes the learning experience a real fun. I am midway through the book, about to begin the projects. I had borrowed this book from a friend to learn the initial chapters since I wasn't sure of this book. Since I found it very easy to follow yet educating, I bought a copy for myself. I will undoubtedly say that I have enjoyed this book. Unfortunately, the copy I bought for myself has the worst binding I have seen in my life - and I have seen really low cost copies of books. The cover is just glued with the rest of the papers and the cover is already coming off after using this copy hardly for three days. I do not think this copy will last long. I would have returned this copy right away, but I put a paper cover on it with tapes (as I usually do with my books). I am stuck with a bad copy :(

Easy to understand

Python Crash Course is an outstanding book that excels in its beginner-friendly approach to programming. It stands as the best resource I've encountered thus far for learning how to code.

Me gusto mucho la forma que se uso para explicar cada concepto de programación con el lenguaje de Python. Creo que es un muy buen libro para principiantes (como yo). Aunque ya esta disponible su 2da Edición!!, y supongo trae algunas actualizaciones de contenido, así que no la pienses mas y a por él!!! Con respecto al estado físico del libro, todo estuvo bien y la entrega fue a tiempo por parte de Amazon. NOTA: Hay un detalle con el diseño de el "lomo y la cubierta", lo que le llaman en Ingles "Lay Flat Binding", ya que al poco tiempo se despego la cubierta por uno de los costados del libro, a pesar de que siempre leo sobre mi escritorio.

Il libro è arrivato in stato buonissimo e la rilegatura è bellissima! E' scritto in maniera molto scorrevole e precisa ed è proprio l'ideale per chi si approccia a Python (e forse anche per chi si approccia alla programmazione per la prima volta)

This book is great. The very methodical way you go through the book is amazing. Instead of throwing you into a bunch of jargon the first thing you do is type: print("Hello World") , then they go through the anatomy of the line of code, blue font means this, brackets means that. It just builds and builds. One thing is you will have to do is type and run the code as you read. Just reading it won't give you the muscle memory and grammar you need to learn to code. The first 230 pages are all instructional (that's where I am right now) and then there are two projects they walk you through for the other two thirds to build a space invaders like game with al the stuff you learned from the instructional section.