BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers Python for Non-Programmers If you've never programmed before, the tutorials on this page are recommended for you; they don't assume that you have previous experience. If you have programming experience, also check out the BeginnersGuide/Programmers page. Books Each of these books can be purchased online but is also available as free textual, website, or video content. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python - Practical Programming for Total Beginners by Al Sweigart is "written for office workers, students, administrators, and anyone who uses a computer to learn how to code small, practical programs to automate tasks on their computer." You can find many free Python books online. Interactive Courses These sites give you instant feedback on programming problems that you can solve in your browser. CheckiO is a gamified website containing programming tasks that can be solved in Python 3. Resources for Younger Learners Tutorials and Websites Tutorial Aggregators / lists Apps Videos Email Academies Tools
Essential Python Reading List Here’s my essential Python reading list. I’ve tried to order the items so you can pause or stop reading at any point: at every stage you’ll have learned about as much possible about Python for the effort you’ve put in. The Zen of Python The Zen of Python is so short I can include it here in its entirety. Typing import this in an interpreted session gives a pythonic spin on “Hello, world”. >>> import this The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters Beautiful is better than ugly. If this doesn’t ring true, Python isn’t for you. Python Tutorial Your next stop should be the Python tutorial. start here The latest version (by which I mean the version corresponding to the most recent stable release of Python) can be found on the web at but I recommend you find and bookmark the same page from your local Python installation: it will be available offline, pages will load fractionally quicker, and you’re sure to be reading about the version of Python you’re actually running. What’s New?
Python Programming Language – Official Website How not to write Python code » Ikke’s blog Lately I’ve been reading some rather unclean Python code. Maybe this is mainly because the author(s) of the code had no in-depth knowledge of the Python language itself, the ‘platform’ delivered with cPython,… Here’s a list of some of the mistakes you should really try to avoid when writing Python code: Some days ago RealNitro pointed me at this list of essential Python readings. “Idiomatic Python” is a must-read, even for experienced Python developers. That’s about it for now, maybe I’ll add some more items to this list later on. Posted in Development, Technology. Tagged with Development, python. By Nicolas – February 8, 2008 (the eff-bot guide to) The Standard Python Library Overviews (15) Core Modules [core-modules-index]Data Representation [data-representation-index]Data Storage [data-storage-index]File Formats [file-formats-index]Implementation Support Modules [implementation-support-modules-index]Internationalization [internationalization-index]Mail and News Message Processing [mail-and-news-message-processing-index]More Standard Modules [more-standard-modules-index]Multimedia Modules [multimedia-modules-index]Network Protocols [network-protocols-index]Other Modules [other-modules-index]Platform Specific Modules [platform-specific-modules-index]Preface [preface-index]Threads and Processes [threads-and-processes-index]Tools and Utilities [tools-and-utilities-index] Articles (249) The aifc module [aifc]The anydbm module [anydbm]The array module [array]The asynchat module [asynchat]The asyncore module [asyncore]The atexit module [atexit]The audiodev module [audiodev] The keyword module [keyword]The knee module [knee]
Distutils-SIG Charter The Distutils-SIG exists to discuss the design, implementation, and maintenance of a suite of module distribution utilities for Python. These utilities are grouped in the 'distutils' package in Python. The goal of distutils is to make building, packaging, distributing, and installing Python modules, extensions, and applications painless and standardized. There are also third-party tools built on the top of distutils, that are using the Distutils mailing list as their home. Namely: setuptools zc.buildout If you are packaging a Python package, this SIG is probably a good starting point to ask questions. The goal of Distutils-SIG is also to try to catch the good bits and practices from third-party projects and insert them in Distutils itself to serve the community. What's Available Interested in learning more or trying out the Distutils?
How to Configure Python After you’ve installed Python, you may want to configure some system settings that impact the way Python runs your code. (If you are just getting started with the language, you can probably skip this section completely; there is usually no need to specify any system settings for basic programs.) Generally speaking, parts of the Python interpreter’s behavior can be configured with environment variable settings and command-line options. In this section, we’ll take a brief look at both, but be sure to see other documentation sources for more details on the topics we introduce here. Python Environment Variables Environment variables—known to some as shell variables, or DOS variables—are system-wide settings that live outside Python and thus can be used to customize the interpreter’s behavior each time it is run on a given computer. Table A.1. These variables are straightforward to use, but here are a few pointers: PYTHonstartUP tkinter settings How to Set Configuration Options import spam
ctypes tutorial Note: The code samples in this tutorial uses doctest to make sure that they actually work. Since some code samples behave differently under Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, they contain doctest directives in comments. Note: Quite some code samples references the ctypes c_int type. ctypes exports the cdll, and on Windows also windll and oledll objects to load dynamic link libraries. You load libraries by accessing them as attributes of these objects. cdll loads libraries which export functions using the standard cdecl calling convention, while windll libraries call functions using the stdcall calling convention. oledll also uses the stdcall calling convention, and assumes the functions return a Windows HRESULT error code. Here are some examples for Windows, note that msvcrt is the MS standard C library containing most standard C functions, and uses the cdecl calling convention: Windows appends the usual '.dll' file suffix automatically. Functions are accessed as attributes of dll objects:
Python 2.6 Quick Reference Style chooser: Modern, Modern B&W, Modern Colored, Classic, High contrast or Printing [Hint: Use styles Modern B&W or Printing to print. If you get problems, try printing the PDF versions instead] Contents Front matter Version 2.6 (What's new?) Check updates at Creative Commons License. Last updated on July 31, 2010. Feb 10, 2009 upgraded by Richard Gruet and Josh Stone for Python 2.6 Dec 14, 2006 upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.5 Feb 17, 2005, upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.4 Oct 3, 2003 upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.3 May 11, 2003, rev 4 upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.2 (restyled by Andrei) Aug 7, 2001 upgraded by Simon Brunning for Python 2.1 May 16, 2001 upgraded by Richard Gruet and Simon Brunning for Python 2.0 Jun 18, 2000 upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 1.5.2 Oct 20, 1995 created by Chris Hoffmann for Python 1.3 Color coding: Features added in 2.6 since 2.5 Features added in 2.5 since 2.4 Features added in 2.4 since 2.3 A link
Graphviz Learn Python in 10 minutes | Stavros' Stuff NOTE: If you would like some Python development done, my company, Stochastic Technologies, is available for consulting. This tutorial is available as a short ebook. The e-book features extra content from follow-up posts on various Python best practices, all in a convenient, self-contained format. Preliminary fluff So, you want to learn the Python programming language but can't find a concise and yet full-featured tutorial. Properties Python is strongly typed (i.e. types are enforced), dynamically, implicitly typed (i.e. you don't have to declare variables), case sensitive (i.e. var and VAR are two different variables) and object-oriented (i.e. everything is an object). Getting help Help in Python is always available right in the interpreter. >>> help(5)Help on int object:(etc etc) >>> dir(5)['__abs__', '__add__', ...] >>> abs. Syntax Python has no mandatory statement termination characters and blocks are specified by indentation. Data types You can access array ranges using a colon (:).