[Tutor] What books do you recommend?

[Weidner, Ronald]

> My problem, though, is I still find it difficult to write meaningful code or use the built in libraries
> effectively and/or correctly because I can't find example code to mimic. I tried sifting through
> ActiveState recipes page, but most of the code seems uninteresting or useful only if utilized
> in a bigger project.

What do you mean by "meaningful" code?  I think that might be your issue.

What I'd recommend is to figure out *what you want to accomplish*.  Python is just a means
to accomplish something, but what matters is the accomplishment.  You may want to write a
GUI desktop app for a specific purpose.  You may want to create a web-based app.  You may
want to write code to process information, scrape web sites...create a game, create some
kind of tool.

Once you decide on that, you will be more focused on what you need to learn.  If, for
example, you need to have persistent storage of information, you then might want to
read up on databases and perhaps SQLite in Python.  Etc.  Then you will find code that
will be applicable to your concerns, and help you learn.  I feel that learning something
"in a vacuum", unrelated to some personal creative goal, just doesn't work well.

Che


I agree with Che.  For me, picking a project then completing it is the best way for me to learn a language.
That said this link is a great resource in my opinion...

http://www.diveintopython.org/

The book there is fantastic and all the links on the right side of the page lead to other great resources.
The only resource that I feel was left out was this one.  I've learned a lot from this site too.

http://www.uselesspython.com/

Good luck...

--
Ronald Weidner



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