Learn Python the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code, Edition 3

Zed A. Shaw

Sep 2013 · Addison-Wesley

About this ebook

You Will Learn Python!

Zed Shaw has perfected the world's best system for learning Python. Follow it and you will succeed-just like the hundreds of thousands of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else.

In Learn Python the Hard Way, Third Edition, you'll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you'll learn how software works; what good programs look like; how to read, write, and think about code; and how to find and fix your mistakes using tricks professional programmers use. Most importantly, you'll learn the following, which you need to start writing excellent Python software of your own:

• Installing a complete Python environment
• Organizing and writing code
• Basic mathematics
• Variables
• Strings and text
• Interacting with users
• Working with files
• Looping and logic
• Data structures using lists and dictionaries
• Program design
• Object-oriented programming
• Inheritance and composition
• Modules, classes, and objects
• Python packaging
• Debugging
• Automated testing
• Basic game development
• Basic web development

It'll be hard at first. But soon, you'll just get it-and that will feel great!

This tutorial will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you'll know one of the world's most powerful, popular programming languages. You'll be a Python programmer.

Watch Zed, too! The accompanying DVD contains 5+ hours of passionate, powerful teaching: a complete Python video course!

Ratings and reviews

If you're new to programming then you probably don't need to learn Python 2 which had its last release 4 years ago! Find a book on python 3, unless you enjoy windows xp and the like

I'm going through this right now and it's great. He's very blunt and to the point, which is not a bad thing. He highly recommends learning 2.7 first then looming at 3 as 2 is much more common. Yes this one is on python 2.7 which is still wildly used despite what others say. Yes version 3 is out but the concepts are the same. Learn 2 and then go on to 3 it will be easier. Also of note he is updating the book to version 3 but I don't know when exactly.

This is a hard way to learn Python. If it was not for the fact it works, it would have a lower score. Does this book does what its author promise? Yes. I highly recommend it for beginners. Warning, this book is using Python 2 not 3.

About the author

Zed A. Shaw is the author of the popular online books Learn Python the Hard Way, Learn Ruby the Hard Way, and Learn C the Hard Way. He is also the creator of several open source software projects like Mongrel, Lamson, Mongrel2, and has been programming and writing for nearly 20 years.