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Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

diveintopython3.org

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Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#2
What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim:

  Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had 
  negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than 
  bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's 
  content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into 
  Python 2." Seriously.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#3
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

I suspect he was just way ahead of the adoption curve on that. I would expect the Dive into Python 3 book sales to pick up.

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#4
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

I don't think it's all that interesting, and it says nothing about Python 3 itself. The choice to write a book on it didn't match up with the demand for a book, and people extrapolated the "disaster" comment too far.

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#5
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

DiP3 is not a very good book. (Neither was DiP.) I don't know how relevant that is to sales, though, but considering that some of the bigger Python groups actively recommend against it, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an impact on sales from that alone.

Edit: I don't recommend learning Python from a book. I recommend http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ if you know a programming language already, or http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ if you don't. (Yes, I know there are dead-trees of both of these.)

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#6
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

DiP3 is not a very good book. (Neither was DiP.) I don't know how relevant that is to sales, though, but considering that some of the bigger Python groups actively recommend against it, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an impact on sales from that alone. Edit: I don't recommend learning Python from a book. I recommend http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ if you know a programming language already, or http://learnpyth…

Why do you think it was bad? (DiP, not 3). No snark.

I have both DiP and PtHW on my Kindle, and I can't straddle both to the end.

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#7
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

DiP3 is not a very good book. (Neither was DiP.) I don't know how relevant that is to sales, though, but considering that some of the bigger Python groups actively recommend against it, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an impact on sales from that alone. Edit: I don't recommend learning Python from a book. I recommend http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ if you know a programming language already, or http://learnpyth…

What Python book do you recommend for someone who wants to start learning the language? Thanks.

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#9
post #2

What's interesting is that according to the author Mark Pilgrim: Python 3 is a commercial disaster. In 2010Q3 I had negative sales of DiP3. More people returned it than bought it. I'm considering retro-fitting the book's content to Python 2.7 and re-releasing it as "Dive Into Python 2." Seriously. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...

One of the main complaints on Amazon was the poor quality of the printing & publishing, not the actual code or writing style.

Personally, I love the web version and was going to purchase it, but decided not to because of all the issues people had reported on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JSR2ZJ2Q585D/ref=cm_cr_pr_vie...

Re: Dive Into Python 3 (online book)

#10
DiP3 is a good book, if you are already familiar with Python. It's not for newbies. In fact, when I didn't know Python I disliked DiP3 to the point of making rude and ignorant comments about it on public forums. Now that I have a humble portion of Python, I like the book and refer to it often. Mark Pilgrim has an engaging style, too. I always appreciate a little style.

If you are looking for an intro book, go with Zed Shaw's "Learn Python the Hard Way." There's another guy with lots of style.

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