Learning Python now coming from Perl

[Carl Banks]

On Dec 6, 12:30 pm, Roy Smith <r... at panix.com> wrote:
> In article <ghecgk$81... at panix3.panix.com>, a... at pythoncraft.com (Aahz)
> wrote:
>
> > In article <ghe0jo$3i... at news.motzarella.org>,
> > Bertilo Wennergren  <berti... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > >I don't suppose there is any introductory material out there that is
> > >based on Python 3000 and that is also geared at people with a Perl
> > >background? Too early for that I guess..
>
> > Honestly, the differences between 2.x and 3.0 are small enough that it
> > doesn't much matter, as long as you're not the kind of person who gets
> > put off by little problems.  Because so much material is for 2.x, you
> > may be better off just learning 2.x first and then moving to 3.x.
>
> I'm not sure I agree.  If you're starting out, you might as well learn the
> new stuff.  Then there's no need to unlearn the old way.

One disadvantage of learning Python 3 first is the availability of
third-party libraries (especially extension libraries), most of which
will not be updated for Python 3.x for quite a while.

Also, I don't think it's really advisable to be completely ignorant of
the 2.x difference even if one intends to start with 3.0.  There is a
lot of code and material out there for 2.x, and until these start to
be widely available for 3.x, people will sometimes have to make do
with the 2.x stuff.


Carl Banks