How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for beginners!
Review: "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python" is one of the best computer programming books out there that beginners can start with! I have been enjoying this book for the past two months and I HIGHLY recommend it for the following reasons:

1) This book is designed with beginners (like you) in mind. In other words, you will not have to hire a tutor to be able to understand this book! It is very easy and clear to understand -- unlike many of the previous programming books that I have come across in the past.

2) It teaches you the necessary programming fundamentals that other programming languages require you to know. Once you have learned how to work with python, you will probably find it pretty easy (as I did) to acquire additional programming languages, such as Microsoft Visual Basic, C++ and Java.

3) This book provides the beginner with many easy-to-understand examples, in which the reader can try out. This makes the learning experience more interactive and enjoyable.

4) Python is a very easy language for beginners to work with. It is very easy to comprehend and tends to be on the "forgiving" side, especially if one makes a mistake while trying to learn to program.

5) Python is a free programming language that works with my different type of computer systems. It works beautifully with Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Unix, Linux, Solaris, and other operating systems. With the language being free, you do not have to pay additional money to obtain the software.

I absolutely love this book and I hope that you will find it to be a fun and rewarding experience too. Give it a try -- it will open up a new world of programming to you!

Rating:
Summary: A great text for learning Python
Review: I don't actually own a hard copy of this book, but I read it in its entirety online, and I must say, it was all I needed to learn Python. I began programming 8 years ago in AppleSoft BASIC, and I've now been using C++ for 5 years. Prior to seeing this book, I'd looked into Python a few times, but never really got engaged enough to learn it. A few days ago, when I found a copy of the book on iBiblio, I read through it in two days flat, and now I have a really good feel for the language. The authors cover all the vital topics in a concise, consistent, and reader-friendly manner. I must say that I'm not a programming neophyte, so I don't have an objective feel for whether or not this book can teach you from scratch how to think like a computer scientist, but it certainly helped me once and for all to learn Python, and I'd recommend it to anyone without hesitation.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money!
Review: I was unimpressed and learned nothing. It might be worth mentioning that this is self-published by the authors. I wish I had known that--my opinion is that an established publisher would have a hard time marketing it. Just very muddled and not helpful at all.