> Ira Solomon wrote: >> I am an experienced programmer (40 years) . . . >> I'm interested in learning Python
> js wrote: >> I wonder why nobody mension Python Cookbook yet . . . >> and Python Standard Library Because cookbooks are not supposed to be language introductions. They are collections of non-obvious techniques, for use by people already familiar with a core language and its standard libraries. Python in particular offers a lot for traditional programmers to wrap their minds around before considering cookbooks; Programming Python, for example, purports to help programmers think Pythonically, and probably belongs chronologically between the introductory books and the cookbooks. Many programmers coming from different languages tend (at first) to write code that makes experienced Pythonistas cringe. Effective use of the language depends on an understanding of its extremely dynamic nature, which can be tough to grasp for those of us coming from compiled language backgrounds. It seems to me, based purely on discussions seen in comp.lang.python, that even folks coming from relatively dynamic languages like Lisp often underestimate the level of run-time indirection provided by Python. One of the neat things about the Nutshell book is that it shows how even the process of resolving object attributes is potentially complicated, and how the new 'type' metaclass helps to at least make the process more consistent than with old-style objects. Experienced programmers first have to learn that an expression like "a.x" means something very different in Python from what it means elsewhere; then, they can begin leveraging these language features to do the sorts of things illustrated in the cookbooks. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
