Python: Visual QuickStart Guide, 2nd Edition

I've been hearing a lot about Python, its excellent syntax, and myriad of uses, so I decided to look for something to introduce me to the language. I ended up picking up Python: Visual QuickStart Guide because it's a light read and comes at a bargain bin price.

The book is written from the perspective that you're a complete beginner at Python. However, this tone makes a lot less sense as you go through the book; the book's examples seem to exist purely to demonstrate how the language's syntax looks. Indeed, there is very little practical application of anything you will learn from this book. It goes into minimal detail, and often what explanation it does offer is useless.

On the plus side, it is one of the first books on the shelves for Python 3. Anyone looking for a quick way to get up to date on Python 3 won't be disappointed. There's even a handy appendix highlighting the differences between Python 2 and Python 3. However, anyone just beginning Python who is... Read more

I bought this book thinking it would be along the lines of other Visual Quick Start books that were excellent such as PHP 5 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide by Larry E. Ullman. I think I have the versions right in this reference.

However, I soon found that although the Python book does a good job of explaining basics such as data types, it falls very short of providing a practical introduction to the language in a way that makes the text useful. For example, need to create a simple email script? You won't find any help in the book. Need to do something with a web page. Too bad. Need to use a regular expression to see if there is a valid phone number in a field? Forget it. Regular expressions beyond built-ins are not covered.

In fairness, I would say that this python book is consistent with several other Python books that simply do not provide a practical text when someone is in need of a hands-on how-to guide for a simple project. It's as... Read more

I purchased this book when it came out because I was very interested in learning Python version 3.0. I previously had read the Quick Start for HTML and JavaScript and had high hopes for this book. However, it seemed as though the author downloaded the free python documents, picked some various topics and copy and pasted them into his book as a desk reference. I do give credit that the author uses more of the main stream syntax but doest really provide guidance for application use. The author also fails to explain a lot of the syntax at times which forced me to download the documents from [...]. Therefore I cant recommend this for beginning programmers. Save your money, download the documents at [...], and go to Office Depot or Staples and print out what you need.