Intermediate to expert book

[Tony Houghton]

Can anyone recommend a good book for intermediate up to expert level?
I'm an experienced C programmer and I learnt Python from the "Learning
Python" O'Reilly book because it had good reviews. I was disappointed
though. It was difficult to read because it was so verbose. It would
sometimes take more than a page to explain something where all the
information I needed could have been conveyed in one sentence. If
anyone's seen Leendert Ammeraal's "C For Programmers", that's more the
sort of style I'm after. Something that covers 2.3 and preferably even
2.4 would be a bonus.

I've heard good things about "Dive Into Python". I see it can be
downloaded or read online, and on a very quick browse it seems to be
suitably to the point and cover some useful stuff that was missing from
or too deeply buried in Learning Python. I find it easier to read
printed material though, so I'd consider buying it. What sort of
opinions do people here have of it?

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The address in the Reply-To is genuine and should not be edited.
See <http://www.realh.co.uk/contact.html> for more reliable contact
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[Steve Bergman]

Re: Intermediate to expert book

I'm waiting for the release of the next edition of "Programmin g Python"
from O'Reilly. It's due out in December. The current edition is rather
oldish. From 2001, I believe.

Steve

[George Sakkis]

Re: Intermediate to expert book

"Tony Houghton" <this.address.i s.fake@realh.co .uk> wrote in message
news:4331e50b$0 $16308$ed2619ec @ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.n et...[color=blue]
>
> Can anyone recommend a good book for intermediate up to expert level?
> I'm an experienced C programmer and I learnt Python from the "Learning
> Python" O'Reilly book because it had good reviews. I was disappointed
> though. It was difficult to read because it was so verbose. It would
> sometimes take more than a page to explain something where all the
> information I needed could have been conveyed in one sentence. If
> anyone's seen Leendert Ammeraal's "C For Programmers", that's more the
> sort of style I'm after. Something that covers 2.3 and preferably even
> 2.4 would be a bonus.
>
> I've heard good things about "Dive Into Python". I see it can be
> downloaded or read online, and on a very quick browse it seems to be
> suitably to the point and cover some useful stuff that was missing from
> or too deeply buried in Learning Python. I find it easier to read
> printed material though, so I'd consider buying it. What sort of
> opinions do people here have of it?[/color]

If you would give a chance to a task-oriented intermediate to advanced book, check the second
edition of the python cookbook. It has over 200 practical recipes, covers 2.3 and 2.4 and has taken
excellent reviews.

George

[Paul Rubin]

Re: Intermediate to expert book

Tony Houghton <this.address.i s.fake@realh.co .uk> writes:[color=blue]
> Can anyone recommend a good book for intermediate up to expert level?[/color]

Python Cookbook (2nd ed.) by Alex Martelli, if you really want a dead
tree book. It's not so much about Python itself, as how to accomplish
various things with it. If you just want to learn the language, use
the standard tutorial and reference manuals and read some source code
and PEP's. Books aren't that much help.

Dive Into Python is a pretty good book and as you noted, you can
browse it online enough to form your own impressions. I think if you
have experience with other languages then you don't really need a book
to learn Python.

[Tonguc Yumruk]

Re: Intermediate to expert book

Tony Houghton <this.address.i s.fake@realh.co .uk> writes:
[color=blue]
> Can anyone recommend a good book for intermediate up to expert level?[/color]
....[color=blue]
> 2.4 would be a bonus.
>
> I've heard good things about "Dive Into Python". I see it can be
> downloaded or read online, and on a very quick browse it seems to be
> suitably to the point and cover some useful stuff that was missing from
> or too deeply buried in Learning Python. I find it easier to read
> printed material though, so I'd consider buying it. What sort of
> opinions do people here have of it?
>
> --
> The address in the Reply-To is genuine and should not be edited.
> See <http://www.realh.co.uk/contact.html> for more reliable contact
> addresses.[/color]

Dive Into Python is really a great book about doing nifty tricks in a
pythonic way. Since you are already a programmer and learn the classic
things about python just by reading the tutorial, it's better to read
Dive Into Python and learn the python way of doing things.

--
Love Respect GNU/Linux
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Magpie, n.:
A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it
might be taught to talk.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
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Tonguç Yumruk