[Tutor] newbie with some basic questions

[freddie]

hi,
im a total newbie to both programming and python (well i can write a 
decent shell script...).
just a few questions, most important one first:
1.whats better for a newbie like myself, learning python or core python 
programming? or any other recommendations?
2.how can i make input take only one character and not requrie a CR?
3.i have a simple list of lists for example: people = 
[["A","john","12345"],["B","joe","1231234"],["X","sally","1234"]]
and i need to do something like:
some_variable = X
new_variable = people[*][0] 
that is, find the corresponding list with the list that has [0] = X

i could use a dictionary like {"X":["sally","1234"]} but is there a 
better way to do it?