Sounds like its worth the wait. thanks all. shawn
On Thu, 2006-02-09 at 19:02 -0800, Terry Carroll wrote: > On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, nephish wrote: > > > i know this comes up from time to time. i am considering buying 'python > > in a nutshell'. All the reviews i have read for it are very good. But it > > only covers up to python 2.2. i use 2.3 at work, and tinker with 2.4 at > > home. As good a reference as it is, is it too dated to be that good > > still ? > > No, it's not too dated. I still use it constantly as my main reference. > When I know a facility is post-2.2, I use the online docs instead. But my > preference is definitely for the Nutshell. Alex explains things > extraordinarily well, in my opinion. The book is well-organized > and well-indexed, so you can find things pretty easily. > > Two thumbs up, from here. > > > i have 'Learning Python' and 'Programming Python'. Learning is > > awesome for me, Programming is a bit over my head. > > That tracks my feelings. I don't find "Programming Python" to be very > useful. It's not the sort of reference book that, say, "Programming Perl" > occupies on the Perl world. My own take on PP is that you can't open it > up to a discussion of a particular feature and understand that feature > without understanding a lot of other things having nothing to do with the > feature, but that are implicit in the explanations and examples. (But I > hasten to add, I've seen enough people swear how much they love that book, > that this may just be idiosyncratic to me.) > > I think a good Python *reference* book is invaluable to any Python > programmer. And to me, that book is Python in a Nutshell. > > There are a couple others that are good, too: > > The Python 2.1 Bible - 2.1, obviously; I don't know if there's a later > version; > > > The Complete Python Reference - published 2001, so bound to be a bit > dated) > > Python Essential Reference - When I first started playing with Python, a > library copy of this was my reference. I liked it, but I like the > Nutshell just a little better, but that may be a matter of familiarity. > If you're going for this one, I'd suggest waiting another couple of weeks. > The Third Edition is coming out February 24, which means it will be the > most current Python reference book, when published. I would be surprised > if it didn't cover through 2.4. > > > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
