Beginning with Python; the right choice?

[Che M]

On Jun 26, 10:22 pm, "sato.ph... at gmail.com" <sato.ph... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As you can imagine, I am new, both to this group and to Python.  I
> have read various posts on the best book to buy or online tutorial to
> read and have started to go through them.  I was wondering, as someone
> with virtually no programming experience (I am a photographer by
> trade), is Python the right language for me to try and learn?
>
> I do vaguely remember learning what I think was BASIC on some old
> Apple's back in elementary school (circa 1992).  Would something like
> that (the name at least makes it SOUND easier) be more feasible?
>
> If I do choose to learn Python, are there any tutorials for the
> absolute beginner.  I do not mean beginner to Python, but rather,
> beginner to programming.  Someone who hasn't a clue what object
> oriented whatcha-ma-whoozit means.  I ask again because I understand
> that content is always evolving and there might be new tutorials out
> there.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Daniel Sato

I was in your exact position (well, I wasn't a photographer) less than
three years ago, and I started Python from no programming knowledge
other than, just as you said, BASIC from long, long ago.  I picked
it up enough to do what I want to do and have been quite happy with
it.  I learned (my small subset of) it here and there over a year
or so I guess, just as I felt like it, as it was purely for hobby
(and I still learn new stuff of course).  If you are hellbent on
learning it and have good instructional material, you could learn
a lot in a good month, really.

My best advice is to get a couple of ultra-basic short tutorials
read/viewed, and then identify *what it is you want to use Python
to do*.  Any language can be used to essentially anything, and I
feel it is better to learn *per task* than to try to simply learn
the whole language.  You will feel better having accomplished
something in line with your goals.

In terms of good tutorials for absolute beginners, here are two:

Alan Gauld's Learning to Program
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

ShowMeDo.com has lots of Python instructional videos, including this
one
for absolute beginners:
http://showmedo.com/videotutorials/series?name=irgGc9ChS

I also recommend the Python tutor list, which you can sign up for
here:
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor

So what is it that you want to use Python for?

Che