Books

We will be using the second edition of Allen B. Downey's "Think Python" in class.

How to Think like a Computer Scientist (Links to an external site.) Online version of the book. You can enter code.
Peter Wentworth's version of Downey's book, in Python 3
Think Python (Links to an external site.) Downloadable PDF of an earlier version of the book
Python Tutorial
Dive into Python (Links to an external site.)
LearnPython the Hard Way Zed's Smith's take on life and Python

Many resources discuss earlier versions of Python. You can move from version 2 to version 3, but there are differences.

There are many books that promise to teach you to program in 24 hours or 21 days. They are for dummies. Here is a nice article (Links to an external site.) by Peter Norvig about mastering the art of programming.

You may find this discouraging: please don't take it that way. Learning any complex skill, such as ballroom dancing or barroom piano takes times, but the intermediate stages can be a lot of fun.

Environments

I confess that I use the Unix vi editor and the command line most of the time.

Debugger

Whatever environment you pick, be sure to take some time learning the Debugger. Time spent understanding the debugger will pay off handsomely.

Here is a Tutorial (Links to an external site) on the Python Debugger, pdb

And here is the pdb manual (Links to an external site)

A nice tutorial (Links to an external site) by Doug Hellmann

While pdb is useful to know, debugging is a place where an IDE really shines. I've prepared a 20 minute discussion of Debugging in general, and the Canopy, Wingware, and pdb environments in particular. Here is a screencast (Links to an external site) of that lecture.

There are many Python debuggers out there: here is a list (Links to an external site) of a few

Video (Links to an external site) of debugging with Canopy

Video (Links to an external site) of debugging with Visual Studio

Documents

You may wish to make copies of these Reference cards. The difference between the version described below and the version the will be using are small.

Python 3.2 Reference card

User Groups

BPUG (Links to an external site.) - Boston Python User Group

PyLadies (Links to an external site.) - A Python group for women

Online Courses

A list of some online courses

Style Guides

PEP 8 Style guide for Python Code

Code like a Pythonista (Links to an external site.)

Some of this may not make sense the first time you read it. Read it again. I keep a copy in my bag and read it on the subway.

INTERVIEWER

Some people say they can’t understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?

WILLIAM FAULKNER

Read it four times.

Thelonious Monk on style

Monk on playing his music (Links to an external site.)

Please suggest other resources you found useful.