★★★★★ 3
I think this book will give many beginners a good quick start into Python programming
A review of "Python: QuickStart Guide by Robert Oliver"
Published by ClydeBank Media
Copyright (c) 2023
ISBN-13: 978-1-63610-038-8
First Edition: Last Updated: April 24, 2023
In summary - I feel this book has missed some opportunities, is trying to be “cute" and is somewhat lacking in detail in some of the beginning explanations. However … this book starts at the bottom and builds you up. When you are done … while not quite a Python Expert you will be well on the way. It really is a good overview of Python and covers a lot of ground; while it does leave out some things I would have liked to see, [cough cough turtle graphics — turtles make a great introduction to objects … even if they may have taken a detour to the application you end up with at the end] you can’t put every everything including the kitchen sink in a book like this.
Most of the things I would have liked to see differently are just nit-picky: they have these little icons (Note, quckclip, detour, etc.) … things like that should be DEFINED before they show up — the introduction is the perfect place to do that; that that isn’t done bugs me. That he brings up “X” as in Algebra isn’t really needed, programming variables are known quantities for the most part, and are more like the names for things, or the name of a box that contains something … the “variables” in Python has little to do with the variables in Algebra which are unknowns you are trying to solve for.
As example of missing “essential” detail: In the discussion of data types such as integers, and floating point numbers, and strings but don’t discuss magnitude and precision for the numerical datatypes. Not everyone needs to know that in integers basically have as much precision as you have allowed it memory to run. This isn’t “normal” in most other languages and is a nifty feature of Python. I have used it to compute really large numbers such as the 1 millionth Fibonacci number, or the 33rd perfect number (it has over half a million digits, and is very simple in Python[see the short code at the end of this review for another example]). It doesn’t discuss comparison operators for objects you create (I feel that is an important topic, but may be more advanced that this introductory book is designed for - and actually isn't NEEDED but would have been a nice thing to mention). On the other hand the discussion of Python data structures really was very clear.
While it does discuss and use objects, the discussion really isn’t in-depth. But that is OK as this is a quick start guide, not an in-depth reference book. You could (and will later if you go on) find enough to fill a book half this size talking about the details of Python Object Oriented programming ([P]OOP).
This one may not be a nit if they are older: The format is somewhat difficult to read when it comes to the code examples. Code examples are highlighted in gray, this lowers the contrast and unless well lighted makes it harder to read, so make sure you read it in a well lit room or use a book light. Bolding the highlighted text would probably solve this issue. The binding is great (it is spiral bound) and even being somewhat thick, every page lies flat — this makes it easy to use for when you are copying the code examples to your computer. The code can be downloaded, but I would recommend that you type everything in. Errors made by having your typed code not be what you intended to type in are a common source of errors and learning how to find and correct those sorts of errors now will save you a lot of problems.
The book isn’t just introductory material, but gets into some fairly advanced topics such as databases, test driven development, and using GIT. The book does do a good job about more “advanced” topics. It talks about some features of Python while just a few years old may not have been know to some older Python Developers (like dataclass, or Lamda expressions). It provides you an introduction to developing websites, and interacting with the web, multiprocessing, optimization, and error handling to name a few. I really think topics that may stump some people the author has explained clearly and concisely the make the topics easy to grasp.
One thing that surprised me is that it didn’t talk about the philosophy of Python in the introduction…
No braces {} or semicolons, but you do need the occasional colon
Whitespace, indentation, and blank lines MATTER in Python. That needs to be hammered in (really).
One simple way of doing things (not a lot of different ways to do the same thing).
And the name Python comes from the Monty Flying Circus kind and not the Reptile kind (even though a lot of Python “stuff” has the snake kind on it).
It doesn’t talk about Python 2. Python 2 and 3 are different Code bases, They eventually stopped “improving” Python 2 and Python 3 is the one true version of Python, it should at least have a mention.
The phylosophy is important because in Python white space in really important, and that is part of the philosophy of Python that should be covered. This is probably one of the things that messes people up most in the beginning (and that case matters — cow and COW are not the same, as they are in a lot of cases in Windows machines).
Here is an example of case mattering: (not from the book).
>>> cow=3
>>> cow==COW
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
NameError: name 'COW' is not defined. Did you mean: 'cow'?
Here are some things to try once you get your Python installed that show a bit of Python Humor…(also not from the book)…
>>> import this
The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters
Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
>>>
Or try
import antigravity
Python is a fun programming language to learn and it probably the best language for a beginner. Python is a fairly easy to learn programming language, and Mr. Oliver’s brief look back at BASIC is fitting. I do think that Python, in may ways, really is the new BASIC.
In conclusion: This book does provide you a step by step learning path, if followed will get you a lot more knowledgeable about Python, while fairly wide it isn’t always as deep as I would like. The Python QuickStart Guide(r) is like one of those tour packages, it covers all the things you need to see but sometimes you wish you could linger a bit more on a topic. The Coffee Shop game that you work in throughout most of the book is interesting and leads to some good topics and gets you in to some really good practices so you start out right.
The author has provided a video the help you get going which will help you over the rough beginning spots. If you take the time, and follow the book step by step, I think you will be pleased with your progress, and will be able to do some fun stuff quickly. Just remember to do a little bit every day, because learning to program is like learning any language — practice makes perfect.
PS: You might want to try this to see just how easy it is in Python to work with large integers:
f=1
for x in range (1, 101):
f=f * x
print (f" {x:>3d}! = {f:>210,d}")
print
If you had the book, you would know what to do with that!
Also - It may not show up but the following lines need to be indented two spaces in the above example
f=f * x
print (f" {x:>3d}! = {f:>210,d}")
print
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Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023
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