Learning Python 5ed Paperback – 12 July 2013

I like the book, enjoying it a lot, right about chapter 9 or so; although it is dense and it needs time to digest.Pros:- Very in-depth for 2.x and 3.x, really like how the author tackles subjects.- Clear examples and goes in depth in all of them.- So full of information that I feel I learn more than expected.- Excellent as a reference as well.- Excellent to learn how things really work in python, not a tutorial, not a simple guy, an in-depth killer book.- Good set of quiz questions and also exercises.- Good value for money.Cons:- Can be slightly dense.- Some things are not extremely necessary and going too in-depth can cause the reader to think "when are we writing some code? c'mon".Buy it, have it on your desk.

What an excellent and fully document book for starting Python. I do have Python in a Nutshell, but decided I needed to start a little earlier in the sequence. This is a huge book (some 1600 pages) and it is clearly written with lots of tips and repeated warnings of beginners mistakes.It is based on lectures given by the author and feedback from the students. I am proceeding by leaps and bounds and find the code examples excellent. One can, of course, skip any which one does not need to do.I read it on the train to work (despite its size) and find it possible to practise the exercises when I get home. Python is simpler to learn than C or C++ and the structure of the objects is natural. If only I'd structured my exam question as clearly!

After reading 1000 pages of the book I think book is very good. As a data analyst with just a little knowledge of Java and basic OOP concepts I found this book have everything beginner need to start programming in Python. When I started to learn Python I used some web tutorials, but this book gives me better understanding of things and I have really learned a lot from it.Lot of people see the size of the book as the downside, and I have to say it is depressing, but on the other hand I think see that as a benefit because book cover everything beginner need to learn to start to do some real quality programming, and I don't have to search for another sources. Anyway I don't think programming can be learned in one week after reading a 300 pages book, and shorter books don't cover this many topics.There is a lot of repetiton in the book which for me personally is not bad because I see them as a reminders and if the topic is something I feel I really understand I simply skip it.The only thing I don't like is that book's code which can be downloaded from publishers website is a complete unorganised mess, and poorly referenced in the book. So most of the time when I want I can't find the example code there, which make it completely useless.So, if you have time and want to learn Python I recommend this book, but if you have a short deadline or you don't have a lot of patients you should definitely skip it.

Excellent for newbie to expert

First of all this book is massive - it's the thickest paperback book I've ever seen! Despite its huge physical size the high quality print and binding work very well to keep the book usable.As a computing/radio hobbyist I've found this book to be an excellent Python tutorial. Having read it in its entirety I now find the book to be a very useful reference to get me back up to speed when I start a programming project. If you want to move on to more advanced Python Mark's Programming Python makes a great companion to this book.

This is a great reference book for your Python journey. The book is structured in a way that covers a high-level insight into aspects of the language and then provides a more in-depth look into topics should you wish to go deeper into something.

Great book that works as a reference to the language. I find the book perfect when I need to dive deeper under the hood of Python. I do all my personal projects in Pyton3 but still use Python 2.6 at work (CentOS 6.4). The book does a good job comparing both Python versions. In my opinion invaluable at your desk and pdf version in your laptop.