{"id":849,"date":"2010-11-27T04:25:16","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T12:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/?p=849"},"modified":"2011-03-10T07:09:18","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T15:09:18","slug":"review-of-%e2%80%9cpython-visual-quickstart-guide-2nd-edition%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/review-of-%e2%80%9cpython-visual-quickstart-guide-2nd-edition%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of \u201cPython: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd edition)\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/python_vqg_cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-848\" title=\"python_vqg_cover\" src=\"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/python_vqg_cover.jpg\" alt=\"python_vqg_cover\" width=\"230\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/python_vqg_cover.jpg 384w, https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/python_vqg_cover-310x400.jpg 310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have to admit I had my doubts about <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Python-Visual-QuickStart-Guide-2nd\/dp\/0321585445\/ref=dp_ob_title_bk\">this book<\/a>. I have not been impressed with Visual QuickStart Guides in the past. I respect the idea, of presenting only essential information in an easy-to-understand introductory manner, but that was rarely the case in previous experiences. Usually I found them to be a mixture of non-essential information that was not presented in a manner that would be good for those new to the subject.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, their Python (2nd edition) breaks with their past. So far, I have almost consistently found it to be concise and to the point regarding an introduction to Python and programming languages in general. The examples are relevant and work accordingly. While I normally head to O&#8217;Reilly for the in-depth look at a language, this book is a great starting point.<\/p>\n<p>One note and criticism; The examples using input() are flawed for users with Python <3 (most of us). You have to use raw_input() in place of it, although the book does not point this out.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to admit I had my doubts about this book. I have not been impressed with Visual QuickStart Guides in the past. I respect the idea, of presenting only essential information in an easy-to-understand introductory manner, but that was rarely the case in previous experiences. Usually I found them to be a mixture of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/review-of-%e2%80%9cpython-visual-quickstart-guide-2nd-edition%e2%80%9d\/\">Read More&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> from Review of \u201cPython: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd edition)\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[142],"tags":[129,78],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-books","tag-python"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ovQg-dH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1246,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owenmundy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}