Looking for resources for making the jump from Java to Python easier and more productive

[Ant]

Take a look at the newgroup archives over the last week or two - there
seem to have been a glut of people coming from Java to Python and
asking the same sort of questions. There were some links to a bunch of
Python 'gotcha' pages which will be useful.

For my part, I came from Java to Python, and found that it was useful
to do a load of small  scripts in the simplest way possible, or in as
many different ways possible. For example, trying a script involving
creating a new iterable object from a list using for loops, list
comprehensions, generators or functional built-ins (such as map()). The
clearest method usually seems to be considered the most pythonic.

A couple of sites to practice against are:
http://www.pythonchallenge.com/
http://mathschallenge.net/

They give a good set of problems which will work various aspects of
Python that aren't familiar to Java guys, and also break the mindset
that everything has to be done in classes.

I'm still making the transition of course ;-)