<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "santanu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > I know a little python (not the OOP part) learnt by studying the online > > tutorial. Now I would like to learn it more thoroughly. > > I think there's supposed to be a new version of Python in a Nutshell
Just a 2nd edition. I'm just starting to write it. By the time it's done and out in print, say six months if you're a VERY optimistic guy, I'm pretty sure "santanu" will be an experienced Pythonista and quite ready to take advantage, if he chooses, of the Nutshell's 2nd edition as a convenient desktop reference, which is its main intended role. > coming. That's a more serious book than Learning Python. Speaking as the author of the Nutshell, and a TR for Learning, I think I'm reasonably unbiased (or, equally biased in favor of both;-), and I don't think of Learning as ``less serious'' -- it does have a different role, of course. If a book whose title is "Learning X" (for any X) does its job well, then when you're done with it you can probably put it aside -- as Wittgenstein said of the learner, "he must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it". A book that is meant mostly as a convenient reference, if _it_ does its job, keeps being useful for a longer time. On the other hand, using the Nutshell for the purpose of learning Python, while certainly feasible if you're well skilled in computer programming (in other languages), may not be as easy as using "Learning Python" for that purpose! All in all, while I'm of course gladder the more copies of the Nutshell are sold, I still think that, for the _learning_ part, most people might be better served by "Learning Python" -- or, for that matter, the already recommended "Practical Python" (it has many significant completely worked-out example programs -- I was a TR for it, too) or "Dive into Python" (VERY fast and meant for already-experienced programmers -- I wasn't a TR for it, but, my _wife_ was...;-) Alex -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
