On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 09:35, Shawn Milochik <sh...@milochik.com> wrote: > Search Google. You'll find it all. > > Search this list's archives. This kind of thing has been discussed a thousand > times. > > It also wouldn't hurt to brush up on this: > http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Heh... I've seen that link mentioned many many times on some other lists I belong to :) But I agree. HOWEVER, that is a valid question. BUT, the answer is really up to the person asking it. For example, I too am a relative beginner with Python. Luckily I DO have at least an educational background in OOP, and at least a professional background in basic coding (some perl, BASH, etc). So I do tend to rely a lot on google when I run into a snag, THEN if that doesn't work, I come here with specific questions. FWIW, my Google searches always look something like "python <what I'm searching for>" and 99% of the time, that gives me the answers I seek. That being said, however, I also am somewhat old school and prefer to have hard copy at hand too. Sometimes, it's just that much more satisfying to have a physical book handy to look things up in. Maybe it's a comfort thing, I don't know... So in that vein, while I can't suggest any specific books, I can say this... right now, I have a copy of O'Reilly's Learning Python that I use as a reference, as well as a much older copy of the Python 2.1 Bible that I picked up almost a decade ago now the first time I messed around with Python. My personal preference, while searching Google and asking on lists like this is quick and invaluable for the "real world" knowledge that is shared, is to also have A: something along the lines of the Learning Foo books from O'Reilly because they tend to have lengthy explanations that I usually can understand on my own, and B: some sort of Cookbook on the topic at hand. I haven't found a Python cookbook that I like enough to buy yet, but I'm still looking. Those come in handy for simple snippets and examples when doing specific tasks. So yeah, Google and this list are certainly invaluable, but some of us actually like having the heft of a lofty tome to peruse for the answers to the mysteries of the universe. Cheers Jeff -- Charles de Gaulle - "The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_de_gaulle.html -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
