python book for non technical absolute beginner

[News123]

Hi,

One of my 'non technical' friends complained about knowing nothing at
all about programming (though using computers regularly for mails / web
browsing / googling and downloading / cropping photos )

He wants to play a little with programming to stimulate parts of his
otehrwise idle brain cells. ;-) Normally it's more the social science /
linguistic parts being exercised,

I thought python might be a nice language for this

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

thanks in advance for any suggestions hints


bye


N

 

[anonymous]

Yes, there is an excellent book for absolute beginners call Python
Programming, for the absolute beginner (second edition by Michael
Dawson.

Here are the reasons why it is excellent for a beginner.

It doesn't go beyong basic math as do most other computer books when
giving examples, exercises or programs illustrating any language
including Python.

It teaches the basic phython in 9 chapters and the goes on to teach some
basic graphics using Python.

But for me and many others the first 9 chapters are perfect and awesome
to work through.

Most books attempting to teach any subject start off with a few easy
basic chapters and then jumpt into complex explanations and examples.
Not so with this book. It gives consistent easy to understand
examples/code often in the form of a simple game which fun. No book I
have seen, read or own on Python teaches the very basic principles of
writing code as easily understood as this book.

There are many excellent web sites around the world in many languages
that teach basic Python with free texts and examples, but for somone
with little or no programming experience or a first timer at programming
with modest math skills, it is perfect.

 

[Pekka Klärck]

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - Learning with Python is a
good book for beginners and it is available for free under the GNU
license.

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkCSpy/

Cheers,
.peke

 

[Terry Reedy]

One of my 'non technical' friends complained about knowing nothing at
all about programming (though using computers regularly for mails / web
browsing / googling and downloading / cropping photos )

He wants to play a little with programming to stimulate parts of his
otehrwise idle brain cells. ;-) Normally it's more the social science /
linguistic parts being exercised,

I thought python might be a nice language for this

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

thanks in advance for any suggestions hints

I started with the 1.3 version of
http://docs.python.org/tutorial/index.html
(but had lots of previous experience).

 

[Rhodri James]

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

For just pottering around with, your friend could do worse than the
LiveWires Python Course. It doesn't go far into general programming
skills, largely because its designed for 12-15 year old kids to get
through in about three days of concentrated effort, but it will help
to learn the basics of Python and programming in general.

Caveat: the worksheets are built around Python 2.x (for small values of
x!), tell your friend not to use Python 3.0. This is one of the few cases
where it really matters that 'print' is now a function; nothing freaks a
beginner like his output not behaving the way he's been told it should.

 

[News123]

Thanks for your answers,


I'll look at
- "Python Programming, for the absolute beginner (second edition by
MichaelDawson."
and at the LiveWires Course: http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/home


I looked at http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkCSpy/ but
think it's not a good choice for a non engineer, as this course tries to
explain many principles, which are not really needed to get started.
AN example is recursion.
Recursion is important but confuses easily.
I remember still how quite some people at school disconencted mentally
when the teacher tried to explain the 'mathematical induction'.


bye

N

 

[André]

Hi,

One of my 'non technical' friends complained about knowing nothing at
all about programming (though using computers regularly for mails / web
browsing / googling and downloading / cropping photos )

He wants to play a little with programming to stimulate parts of his
otehrwise idle brain cells. ;-) Normally it's more the social science /
linguistic parts being exercised,

I thought python might be a nice language for this

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

thanks in advance for any suggestions hints

bye

N

For something completely different, try http://rur-ple.sourceforge.net/
It's Karel the robot, using only Python, and comes with a whole bunch
of lessons and exercises.

André

 

[David]

I like this one:
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

 

[Tom Morris]

One of my 'non technical' friends complained about knowing nothing at
all about programming (though using computers regularly for mails / web
browsing / googling and downloading / cropping photos )

He wants to play a little with programming to stimulate parts of his
otehrwise idle brain cells. ;-) Normally it's more the social science /
linguistic parts being exercised,

I thought python might be a nice language for this

No my question does anybody know a nice beginners book (or a learning CD
or on line tutorial)? Ideally it shouldn't be too serious and have a lot
of small nice mini-examples

It's not Python, but I am a big fan of Chris Pine's 'Learn to Program'
<http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/>, which is a Ruby tutorial for absolute
beginners. It'd certainly be nice if the author were to allow someone to
port the tutorial for Python and other languages. It spends a lot of
time taking the reader from numbers and letters through conditionals,
loops, arrays, iteration and eventually to classes and objects. It
really is, in my opinion, one of the best programming tutorials for
beginners.