Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 2/16/2025 4:00 PM, Jan Erik Moström via Python-list wrote: On 16 Feb 2025, at 20:59, dn via Python-list wrote: When stop to think about it, this is quite a request: don't give me what I do know, do give me what I don't know! đŸ˜œ That said, you are correct: the bulk of new publications seem to (still) aim at the Beginner end of the continuum (see later comments). Yep, I threw away several beginners books in Python last week (they were a bit dated). My work used to be (and still is, to a small degree) to teach programming to novice students. So, I feel I can skip the basics and go on to the intermediate/advanced stuff. Over the period mentioned, Python has changed a great deal - Python 3 (largely) replacing Python 2 was only the most-notable! Yep, that shift was interesting when teaching novices Python!! Books published in 2024 (which I may not have read from cover to cover - yet): Effective Python: 125 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, 3rd Edition Brett Slatkin Addison Wesley Hypermodern Python Tooling Building Reliable Workflows for an Evolving Python Ecosystem Claudio Jolowicz O'Reilly Powerful Python Aaron Maxwell O'Reilly - starts with generators (which you likely haven't met before) I have done so ... to be really honest, it was when I couldn't remember how to create an iterator for a class I was writing, that I realized that I needed a refresher. it's a tremendous challenge to write a book (also involving considerable time and effort) which will return value for more than a few years - particularly at the advanced levels! True, I'm quite amazed that people write books since it takes such an effort with little, my guess, reward for doing it An alternative-approach which may take your fancy, is online courses (many of which can be taken for $free). Their self-paced nature has the advantage of enabling the skipping-over of repetitive content (and the repeating of points which don't immediately 'sink in'). You will find many examples on Coursera* and edX*. My plan is to find one or two books that seem suitable, when I've looked at those then I'm going online for the rest. Thanks for the suggestions: I think I now have 2-3 books that I should look into in more detail. I don't have a book for them but I think you should look into the (relatively new) type annotation system, as well as asynchronized programming. The latter is especially of interest because the older techniques have been removed and replaced with a different approach (asyncio having replaced asyncore). Both of these will probably be new to you, and both are important to know about. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 16 Feb 2025, at 23:06, Thomas Passin via Python-list wrote: > I don't have a book for them but I think you should look into the (relatively > new) type annotation system, as well as asynchronized programming. The latter > is especially of interest because the older techniques have been removed and > replaced with a different approach (asyncio having replaced asyncore). Both > of these will probably be new to you, and both are important to know about. Thanks, I will. = jem -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
Jan Erik Moström writes: > On 16 Feb 2025, at 20:47, rbowman via Python-list wrote: > >> David Beasley's 'Python Distilled'. The author doesn't enumerate Python 3 >> features specifically but as the title suggests hits the important >> concepts. > > Thanks, I'll take a look I can reinforce this recommendation. I haven't read the entire book, but I'm reading it slowly. The beauty of this book is that it's very concise without being just a reference. Since you're familiar with Python already, this is likely a good match to you. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On Sun, 16 Feb 2025 22:00:11 +0100, Jan Erik Moström wrote: > I have done so ... to be really honest, it was when I couldn't remember > how to create an iterator for a class I was writing, that I realized > that I needed a refresher. Most of my Python was related to Esri's ArcGIS version. Up until a few years ago installing their product would install Python 2.7. With Esri 11, they moved to Python 3. Modifying my scripts wasn't difficult but I thought I should expand my Python knowledge. There were quite a few features like list comprehensions I'd never used. I also appreciated f strings when they were introduced, the walrus operator, and other enhancements. Another part of my renewed interest was the advent of many microcontrollers capable of running MicroPython, which is a subset of Python 3.x. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On Mon, 17 Feb 2025 08:59:11 +1300, dn wrote: > - on Coursera am sad to advise avoiding U.Mich courses - they tend to be > re-worded Java (I think) content, don't follow PEP-008 and 'miss' Python > idioms The edx CS50 Python from Harvard is decent. It does start with the basics but overall I enjoyed it. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Book recommendation? For getting up to date
I'm looking for a book that would teach me the lastest and greatest parts of Python, does anyone have any recommendations? I've looked at python.org and pythonbooks.org but I couldn't decide which one to get. I used to be fairly good at Python, but I haven't done any serious programming in the last 10 years or so. So I would like something that got me up-to-date with the latest features. I don't need anything that would teach me OOP, functional programming, etc (unless there is a new feature). In other words I'm looking for something that concentrates language specific changes that has happened the last 10 years or so. = jem -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 2/16/25 05:50, Jan Erik Moström via Python-list wrote: I'm looking for a book that would teach me the lastest and greatest parts of Python, does anyone have any recommendations? I've looked at python.org and pythonbooks.org but I couldn't decide which one to get. I used to be fairly good at Python, but I haven't done any serious programming in the last 10 years or so. So I would like something that got me up-to-date with the latest features. I don't need anything that would teach me OOP, functional programming, etc (unless there is a new feature). In other words I'm looking for something that concentrates language specific changes that has happened the last 10 years or so. = jem Possibly scan through the "What's New in ..." pages for Python 3, to give you descriptions of new stuff that you can then use as search terms for further research. https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/index.html -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 17/02/25 01:50, Jan Erik Moström via Python-list wrote: I'm looking for a book that would teach me the lastest and greatest parts of Python, does anyone have any recommendations? I've looked at python.org and pythonbooks.org but I couldn't decide which one to get. I used to be fairly good at Python, but I haven't done any serious programming in the last 10 years or so. So I would like something that got me up-to-date with the latest features. I don't need anything that would teach me OOP, functional programming, etc (unless there is a new feature). In other words I'm looking for something that concentrates language specific changes that has happened the last 10 years or so. When stop to think about it, this is quite a request: don't give me what I do know, do give me what I don't know! That said, you are correct: the bulk of new publications seem to (still) aim at the Beginner end of the continuum (see later comments). Over the period mentioned, Python has changed a great deal - Python 3 (largely) replacing Python 2 was only the most-notable! Another explosion has been the sheer variety of application-domains where Python is happily applied: web, data science, machine learning, geo-spatial, natural language - and good, old, math/stats (and more...) Accordingly, most books aim at 'getting started' (Learn?Master Python in the time it takes to eat an apple - hint: the apple is probably better value), or one specific domain, eg Python for Econometrics. Books published in 2024 (which I may not have read from cover to cover - yet): Effective Python: 125 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, 3rd Edition Brett Slatkin Addison Wesley - probably some good 'reminders' for you, to bring Python back-to-life in your mind, plus (some of) the updated information and more-advanced considerations requested Hypermodern Python Tooling Building Reliable Workflows for an Evolving Python Ecosystem Claudio Jolowicz O'Reilly - per the title, majors on testing and projects rather than the language per-se (still haven't found git in-detail though - YMMV) Powerful Python Aaron Maxwell O'Reilly - starts with generators (which you likely haven't met before) and goes 'up' from there (am still biting-off chunks of this one, rather than reading serially) Given Python's rapid development (a new point-upgrade version released in October every year - many thanks to the 'Python Gods' who invest hard-work in such!), it's a tremendous challenge to write a book (also involving considerable time and effort) which will return value for more than a few years - particularly at the advanced levels! An alternative-approach which may take your fancy, is online courses (many of which can be taken for $free). Their self-paced nature has the advantage of enabling the skipping-over of repetitive content (and the repeating of points which don't immediately 'sink in'). You will find many examples on Coursera* and edX*. - on Coursera am sad to advise avoiding U.Mich courses - they tend to be re-worded Java (I think) content, don't follow PEP-008 and 'miss' Python idioms - disclaimer: my work uses the edX platform (not Python) -- Regards, =dn -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On Sun, 16 Feb 2025 13:50:33 +0100, Jan Erik Moström wrote: > I used to be fairly good at Python, but I haven't done any serious > programming in the last 10 years or so. So I would like something that > got me up-to-date with the latest features. David Beasley's 'Python Distilled'. The author doesn't enumerate Python 3 features specifically but as the title suggests hits the important concepts. https://www.dabeaz.com/python-distilled/ -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 16 Feb 2025, at 20:47, rbowman via Python-list wrote: > David Beasley's 'Python Distilled'. The author doesn't enumerate Python 3 > features specifically but as the title suggests hits the important > concepts. Thanks, I'll take a look = jem -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Book recommendation? For getting up to date
On 16 Feb 2025, at 20:59, dn via Python-list wrote: > When stop to think about it, this is quite a request: > don't give me what I do know, > do give me what I don't know! đŸ˜œ > That said, you are correct: the bulk of new publications seem to (still) aim > at the Beginner end of the continuum (see later comments). Yep, I threw away several beginners books in Python last week (they were a bit dated). My work used to be (and still is, to a small degree) to teach programming to novice students. So, I feel I can skip the basics and go on to the intermediate/advanced stuff. > Over the period mentioned, Python has changed a great deal - Python 3 > (largely) replacing Python 2 was only the most-notable! Yep, that shift was interesting when teaching novices Python!! > Books published in 2024 (which I may not have read from cover to cover - yet): > > Effective Python: 125 Specific Ways to > Write Better Python, 3rd Edition > Brett Slatkin > Addison Wesley > > Hypermodern Python Tooling > Building Reliable Workflows for an Evolving Python Ecosystem > Claudio Jolowicz > O'Reilly > > Powerful Python > Aaron Maxwell > O'Reilly > - starts with generators (which you likely haven't met before) I have done so ... to be really honest, it was when I couldn't remember how to create an iterator for a class I was writing, that I realized that I needed a refresher. > it's a tremendous challenge to write a book (also involving considerable time > and effort) which will return value for more than a few years - particularly > at the advanced levels! True, I'm quite amazed that people write books since it takes such an effort with little, my guess, reward for doing it > An alternative-approach which may take your fancy, is online courses (many of > which can be taken for $free). Their self-paced nature has the advantage of > enabling the skipping-over of repetitive content (and the repeating of points > which don't immediately 'sink in'). You will find many examples on Coursera* > and edX*. My plan is to find one or two books that seem suitable, when I've looked at those then I'm going online for the rest. Thanks for the suggestions: I think I now have 2-3 books that I should look into in more detail. = jem -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
