Newbie question

[Alan Gauld]

> The official tutorial is a nightmare.  

For a total begoinner yes, but for experienced 
programmers its actually very good :-)

>  I'm working with the How to think like a computer scientist 
> by Allen B. Downey and Jeffrey Elkner 

That should be OK, but you can try mine for an alternative 
view if you get stuck...

BUT please also join the python tutor mailing list where lots of 
folks are just waiting to answer your newbie type questions....

Just check the mailing lists section of the python.org website.

Alan G
http://www.crosswinds.net/~agauld