“The long-awaited second edition of Wesley Chun’s Core Python Programming proves to be well worth of bying. Find this valuable resource, click here.” See also The Python 3 References.

What is Python?

Python programming language is an elegant and robust language for those who are looking power and general applicability of traditional compiled programming languages with the ease of use of simpler scripting and interpreted languages.

Python (invented and developed by Guido van Rossum and later on at the CWI(Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica), Netherlands) alllows you to get the job done, and the read what you wrote later.

The learning curve of python is short.

The main features of Python programming language

• High Level 
• Object Oriented
• Scalable
• Extensible
• Portable
• Easy to learn
• Easy to read
• Easy to maintain
• Robust
• Effective for Rapid Prototyping
• Memory managed solutions
• Byte compiled for better performance
• Used in Lifetime Studios
• Used in Google Code

Installing Python

See References section for links to setup Python in Unix flavors, Win32, Older platforms, Handhelds, Gaming Consoles, Real-Time Platforms , alternative implementations (Jython, IronPython, stackless).

Comparing Python to other languages, click here. 

Running Python

• Interactive Interpreter from the command line
• As s script from the command line
• In an integrated development environment.

Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language, Rough Cuts

• By Mark Summerfield
• Published May 1, 2008 by Prentice Hall.

Table of Contents

Update on Mon, May 19, 2008 at 12:41 PM by Editor in Chief, (LSJ)(BDA)(PF) Lifetime Oy Ltd.

Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python 3 Language is the definitive guide to practical Python 3 programming.

This book teaches you how to write programs in good idiomatic Python 3 style, and how to take advantage of the many new and improved features that Python 3 provides compared with Python 2.

Written by Mark Summerfield, author of Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt, the book is both a tutorial and a reference, with comprehensive coverage of the Python 3 language that also makes extensive use of Python’s standard library. The book avoids the limitations of Python 2 and prevents confusion by taking a purely Python 3 approach (although an Appendix on migrating from Python 2 to Python 3 is provided). Every key concept is illustrated with code, and the realistic downloadable examples have all been tested on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux with Python 3.0 final.

Coverage includes

• The built-in and standard library data types, and all the control structures and exception handling facilities.
• All the new features such as named tuples, bytes and bytearrays, the new print() function, the str.format() method, and sequence and mapping unpacking.
• Full coverage of functions and methods including positional and keyword arguments and argument unpacking.
• Creating and using custom modules and packages, and an overview of Python’s standard library.
• Creating fully integrated custom classes (including custom collection classes), that can be used with Python’s operators just like built-in classes.
• Reading and writing files in custom binary formats or as pickles (both with optional compression), and in text and XML formats.
• Advanced techniques including random-access files, generators, dynamic module importing (plugins), dynamic code execution, function and class decorators, function annotations, context managers, abstract base classes, and metaclasses.
• Domain-specific programming including subprocesses, threading, networking, database programming, regular expressions, and GUI programming with tkinter.