I checked the first couple of sections, and I'm sure learning Python "the Hard Way" would have been much more exciting than reading the official documentation...
Oh, well. What is done is done.
Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
51–60 of 60 posts
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#52love this book. very little verbal fluff, allows the reader to figure out the material on their own with the exercises and extra credit.
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of the same thing, and I think it's a great trend. I wonder why Zed only charges $1 for the PDF/ePub, though. Maybe he doesn't realize how much people are willing to pay? I still sell lots of copies of the Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial PDF at $26, and I previously sold hundreds of copies at $39. I bet he's leaving a lot of money on the table with his current pricing scheme. Maybe it's not just about the mone…
Actually, I researched it quite a bit, and I found I had 300k downloads of the PDF last year, but that 150k of those were from bookmarks into the middle of the PDF. My hypothesis is that 1/2 of the readers want HTML they can bookmark, and 1/2 want to download a PDF. I'm guessing that if I set the price of the download really low, then I'll get more downloads and purchases than just a few hundred. We'll see how it tur…
could you please add a link to "buy as a gift" ? I can purchase it twice, but it will keep getting linked to my email address.
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#54Just bought the Kindle version. Now I have the book on my Kindle and iPhone Kindle App (Looks really crisp on my iphone and has anchor links to each chapter, although it could use a better table of contents)
Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00586LJ2O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of the same thing, and I think it's a great trend. I wonder why Zed only charges $1 for the PDF/ePub, though. Maybe he doesn't realize how much people are willing to pay? I still sell lots of copies of the Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial PDF at $26, and I previously sold hundreds of copies at $39. I bet he's leaving a lot of money on the table with his current pricing scheme. Maybe it's not just about the mone…
Actually, I researched it quite a bit, and I found I had 300k downloads of the PDF last year, but that 150k of those were from bookmarks into the middle of the PDF. My hypothesis is that 1/2 of the readers want HTML they can bookmark, and 1/2 want to download a PDF. I'm guessing that if I set the price of the download really low, then I'll get more downloads and purchases than just a few hundred. We'll see how it tur…
That's interesting. I'll look forward to reading about your results.
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
So this targets an earlier version of Python?
Yes, and for a reason. Python 3 is still not widely adopted [sic]. Python 3 Wall of Shame: http://python3wos.appspot.com/
Stop the "wall of shame" shtick, please. It helps nobody. Projects know about Python 3 and projects are planning to move to Python 3. It isn't trivial and there is no "shame" in it at all.
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#57Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#58Zed, are you going to be writing any other books for Python, like Python 3 or more advanced topics? Maybe "Advanced Python the Hard Way?"
Nope, I'm not writing any more Python books, instead I'm writing a book on C.
If you're open to suggestions, I and I'm sure lots of others would love to see one for objective C.
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of the same thing, and I think it's a great trend. I wonder why Zed only charges $1 for the PDF/ePub, though. Maybe he doesn't realize how much people are willing to pay? I still sell lots of copies of the Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial PDF at $26, and I previously sold hundreds of copies at $39. I bet he's leaving a lot of money on the table with his current pricing scheme. Maybe it's not just about the mone…
Actually, I researched it quite a bit, and I found I had 300k downloads of the PDF last year, but that 150k of those were from bookmarks into the middle of the PDF. My hypothesis is that 1/2 of the readers want HTML they can bookmark, and 1/2 want to download a PDF. I'm guessing that if I set the price of the download really low, then I'll get more downloads and purchases than just a few hundred. We'll see how it tur…
I'm one of those poor, unemployed young people for whom the $1 price point was perfect. It's the "What the Hell" price point. The benefit of having it on my Kindle and not having to switch windows all the time is real, but rather small. Perhaps worth $2.99... but certainly not $5.
It's worth more now that I've started getting to know the book of course. I've been reading a lot of programming books for a few months and these examples are substantially superior to anything else I've seen, except for Why's Poignant Guide.
Non-DX Kindle side-tip: Convert .epub to .mobi in calibre with "Text Justification > Linearize Table" checked.
If you don't do this, trying to navigate around the tables on a small screen will drive you batty.
(Still trying to figure out the regex to get rid all the "orphaned" line numbers created by this method.)
Re: Learn Python The Hard Way 2nd Edition Released
#60LPTHW has a good rep, but it looks like it focuses on teaching someone who's never programmed before. Would anyone like to recommend something similar for people already well versed in (a) mainstream language(s)?
Don't let that stop you from trying the book. I started programming "way back when" in ASP/VBScript. These days we're a RoR shop, but I needed to pick up Python rather quickly for a side project. LPTHW is structured well for beginners, but it just so happens it's structured well for pros too. The exercises are a great way to discover portions of Python that aren't intuitive to you. You'll hit roadblocks where your co…
"LPTHW is structured well for beginners"
absolutely !