The Deitel book (was Re: Textbooks on Perl/Python)

[Chris Gonnerman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Aahz" <aahz at pythoncraft.com>


> In article <m27kfsm2x8.fsf at python.net>, Michael Hudson  <mwh at python.net>
wrote:
> >Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> writes:
> >>
> >> if and when a student manages to work all through it, I think the
> >> student WILL feel pretty confident in their mastery of the subject.
> >
> >("it" is Deitel & Deitel's Python : How To Program)
> >
> >My concern was that the student might feel confident in the subject
> >after reading the book, but that this might not be justified.  It does
> >cover a huge amount of material, but not with enormous depth (at
> >least, not in the chapters *I* tech reviewed).
>
> My concerns were primarily teaching of poor coding techniques (e.g. use
> of magic numbers instead of well-named constants) and an approach that I
> can best describe as Python written by a Java programmer (rather than
> teaching a Pythonic approach).

I was one of the technical reviewers for this book, and
frankly I wasn't impressed.  They only asked me for review
of factual information, not presentation or style; and I
feel it is the latter two that torpedo this book.

My favorite (so far) is Steve Holden's "Python Web Programming."
It covers a lot of territory and includes a lot of neat stuff.

Also enjoyable to read.

I realize that several other bright people on this list are
or have written books recently; I just haven't read them yet...

Chris Gonnerman -- chris.gonnerman at newcenturycomputers.net
http://newcenturycomputers.net