Head First Python 2e

I am a little surprised at the lack of reviews of this book here in UK. It's a great book to get started with Python. When it introduces new things, it doesn't let the student just go in the wild world of Google to search them. For e.g. when writing a web app, it actually walks you through the basics of flask - other video tutorials just say install flask and run these commands. And you are expected to follow without understanding what it all means. I am not expecting a detailed web development lesson in a python book, but good to understand the basics. I will say this - do not attempt to read the kindle version - not available in UK anyways. The book uses various visual tools to enhance stickiness of what it teaches. There are "snippets" - hand-written-note-style text and all, which is impossible to read on a kindle. Perhaps you can if you are using an iPad to read kindle book. But still not as functional as the actual book, which makes me feel like I am back in college. It's a good feeling to have in mid-30s. Content wise, absolutely top notch for a beginner.

I strongly recommend this for beginner and intermediate developers . Even advance python developer can use this . Paul has very well explained every concept . I am just reading the chapter on Decorators and came here just to give comment ! This book == learn by doing . He used Flask web framework to explain the concept of Python which is very engaging !!!!

A great book to start your Python journey. Guides reader through a well-rounded experience involving webapps and databases. It pushes one gently out of comfort zone, into the learning zone. I also like the sharing of insights on various aspects of Python and OOP. The informal writing style and adequate repetitions were great for reinforcing the lessons. The mini 'tests' were helpful in internalizing knowledge and working the brain. The book is by no means exhaustive, but I found it a great learning aid.

Bon ouvrage

+ : la présentation "head first" rend réellement plus abordable l'acquisition des concepts, même une peu compliqués (ex : "comprehension", "decorators" , "context management class"). + : au final, l'essentiel du python est bien transmis. - : une grande partie des exemples est consacrée à une application de type web, ce qui n'est pas vraiment ce qui m'intéressait au premier abord. Mais les exemples sont souvent là, plus pour servir la pédagogie que pour servir de base à des développements.