OT: Worth learning python?

[Matthew Miller]

On Sat, Mar 12, 2005 at 03:00:28PM +0000, dave irving wrote:
> Im going to want to be writing a few simple apps to use my bluetooth
> stuff: Im mainly a Java / c++ programmer (and know a little perl) -
> but going forward with Linux is there a good argument for learning
> Python too? If so I might order myself a book!!

Python is a good language (although like just about everything, it has its
pros and cons). I highly recommend "The Quick Python Book" from Manning
Publications <http://www.manning.com/harms> as an intro text, plus the
online stuff at python.org for reference. The O'Reilly Python books are
okay, but disappointing compared to, say, the Perl books. (The Python
Cookbook in particular isn't up to the standard set by the Perl Cookbook.)

Unfortunately, The Quick Python Book is somewhat out of date -- six years
old -- and I'm not sure an updated version is in the works. (I recommend
e-mailing the publisher to ask for one!) That means it doesn't even cover
python 2. However, it's still an excellent learning book -- very well
written and organized. And the core features and basic data structures the
book covers are still relevant.

-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm at mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>