Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#1

Post by rsa » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 8:10 AM UTC

Please suggest any advanced tutorials/videos/books or code you studied to learn everything about python.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#2

Post by macarthy12 » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 8:41 AM UTC

Learn Python the hard way, http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

Free

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#3

Post by smeg » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 8:54 AM UTC

I found this post on SO quite enlightening: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/101268/hidden-features-of...

It now also has many links at the top to other SO answers on various topics - this is amazing.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#4

Post by doug1001 » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:23 AM UTC

I doubt i can suggest a single resource not already mentioned in that SO Post. So i'll give a domain-specific one in the event that you or other HN readers are interested in using python for matrix computation. Of course, the core libraries are NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib. On the main SciPy Site, all of the docstrings for a large portion of the methods in NumPy core are collected on a single HTML Page (http://www.scipy.org/Numpy_Example_List_With_Doc). This is an awesome way to learn NumPy--by working the small examples at at the command line. After you do them once, come back to them again, in a few months--"repetition is the mother of skill" as we used to say in the Marines. Two more: there are two excellent tutorials tucked away on the SciPy Site, one called "indexing" and one called "building arrays" which are also comprised of small interactive snippets http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Indexing; http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/BuildingArrays.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#5

Post by hef19898 » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:29 AM UTC

macarthy12 wrote: post #2

Learn Python the hard way, http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ Free

I actually hear about quite often. Being determined to learn python (once time allows), I'm wondering if "learn python the hard way" is good. Does anyone on HN have any experience on it? I'll give it a try anyway, but any feedback regarding this particular way or any other way to learn python is welcome! :-)

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#6

Post by swordswinger12 » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 5:12 PM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #5

macarthy12 wrote: post #2

Learn Python the hard way, http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ Free

I actually hear about quite often. Being determined to learn python (once time allows), I'm wondering if "learn python the hard way" is good. Does anyone on HN have any experience on it? I'll give it a try anyway, but any feedback regarding this particular way or any other way to learn python is welcome! :-)

It's a great beginning tutorial in python. I've been coding C/C++ for ~4 years, and when I went through LPTHW, I found it frustratingly oversimplified.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#7

Post by S4M » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 8:40 PM UTC

swordswinger12 wrote: post #6

hef19898 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hear about quite often. Being determined to learn python (once time allows), I'm wondering if "learn python the hard way" is good. Does anyone on HN have any experience on it? I'll give it a try anyway, but any feedback regarding this particular way or any other way to learn python is welcome! :-)

It's a great beginning tutorial in python. I've been coding C/C++ for ~4 years, and when I went through LPTHW, I found it frustratingly oversimplified.

Yeah, "learn python the hard way" is the book I wished I read before I knew anything about programming. it's really a great book, but it targets people who have very little experience in programming.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#8

Post by rsa » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:08 PM UTC

smeg wrote: post #3

I found this post on SO quite enlightening: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/101268/hidden-features-of... It now also has many links at the top to other SO answers on various topics - this is amazing.

Thanks for the link. I have mastered all the hidden features. :)

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#9

Post by rsa » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:13 PM UTC

doug1001 wrote: post #4

I doubt i can suggest a single resource not already mentioned in that SO Post. So i'll give a domain-specific one in the event that you or other HN readers are interested in using python for matrix computation. Of course, the core libraries are NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib. On the main SciPy Site, all of the docstrings for a large portion of the methods in NumPy core are collected on a single HTML Page ( http://www.s…

Thanks for the links.

Re: Ask HN: How did you become an fluent(expert) in Python?

#10

Post by hef19898 » Fri, Mar 09, 2012, 8:16 AM UTC

S4M wrote: post #7

swordswinger12 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great beginning tutorial in python. I've been coding C/C++ for ~4 years, and when I went through LPTHW, I found it frustratingly oversimplified.

Yeah, "learn python the hard way" is the book I wished I read before I knew anything about programming. it's really a great book, but it targets people who have very little experience in programming.

Thanks! Sounds exactly like what I need. The last time I even SAW any code were some DOS command lines during my studies.