Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science

Rating:
Summary: Python Programming Can be done
Review: An awesome book! Would highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to learn python. I hope to see more books by Zelle. The books structure and examples provided a great outline for a student such as myself in learning python. If you can get a chance to meet John Zelle I would encourage it as well, he is remarkable guy.

Rating:
Summary: This is where to start
Review: For those of you who don't know how to program, this book is the best starting place I've ever read. It's written as an introduction to computer science, by professional educators for a CS1 course.

This book defines all the terms and parts to programming that other "Learn Python" books seem to assume you already know. If reading the tutor section of the Python documentation that came with the language (www.python.org) was not completely clear to you, this is the best book to get you ready to program.

There are plenty of example programs to keep this book interesting to intermediate programmers, but there is doubtfully anything surprising to experienced programmers. Everything in this book is very clearly explained and organized.

Rating:
Summary: From A Computer Science Student...
Review: I absolutely love this book. I've browsed through many computer programming/computer science books before this one, and found this one the best introductory book by far for many reasons. For one, the book moves at a quick yet manageable pace, so I felt like I able to move quickly enough not to get bored yet still absorb the material. Honestly, and I'd never thought I'd say this about a textbook for a class, but I found this to be a page-turner!

There is a convienient Quick Reference serving as an Appendix. It quickly lists the operators, functions, techniques, etc, presented i each chapter, so I didn't need to dig back through the chapters when a concept for function name slipped my mind.

MOST importantly for me are the exercises at the end of each chapter. Sure, most books have sample-code, too, but this book gives you a fair number of problems to solve using the tools you have just learned.

So, if you are new to computer science and interested in learning to program in any language, I'd STRONGLY recommend this book. It's a great introduction to Python, but it's also a GREAT introduction to computer programming concepts.

Rating:
Summary: excellent for the beginner
Review: No, really, people mean it with this one, and so do I. After trying several books promising to be good for "beginning programmers" wishing to pick up Python, I've finally managed to find one that met my needs in this one. Zelle manages to go over basic concepts of how one should view work in a well-structured, high-level language. I'm not 100% new to programming, but then I haven't really done much since banging out some things in assorted BASICs between 1988 and 1991, either. Zelle offers up just enough Python-specific information to get you moving and then uses many examples of both meta-language programs and Python code to illustrate key concepts in problem solving and basic program design. Surely this is scratching the surface for some, but it seems as though it's a useful resource for noobs such as myself.

Rating:
Summary: Very Well Done!
Review: This book does a great job of getting the reader familiar with the basics of python and is written as an intro text book for programming and Computer Science. For the more seasoned python fan this book makes a nice addition to the library and a handy quick reference. Chances are though, it possess little new info. It is more for the beginner, and there are Computer Science Departments use this book for that purpose.