Saturday, July 27, 2013

Learning Python on the cheap: Community Service

Time now for another community service. Today I post some links to sites that offer free online Python instruction. What follows has already been previously been posted in one form or another elsewhere. However, I find the resources so good that I cannot refrain from flagging them.

Everyone has their own learning preferences. For me, it's books of course; so I went researching for possible textbooks. After a while it turned out that one didn't have to fork any money for some of the better regarded books on the matter as these were, and still are, offered legally for free online.

Think Python


This one was the best suited for me as I already had a bit of programming experience. Best part is that it includes exercises. Skipped Ch4 as I couldn't get the module running but it's safe to do so.

Wikibooks


Learn python the hard way


I didn't quite like the approach, but it's the easiest of the bunch.

Dive into python


The Python tutorial



Other:


There are surely tons of instructional videos out there. Check those out if you prefer that media. Also take a look at the courses offered in ItunesU.

See if there are any live courses in your community centre.

Happily enough, all of the online books mentioned above display handsomely on a kindle ereader. If you can lay your hands on the larger screen dx, the experience gets even better.


Also ask around to see if your school/local library/organization/company has access to Safari Books or Ebrary. The first one holds all the O'Reilly books plus much, much more. The second one has many of the other standard books. The subscription fees for both are quite steep, but maybe you already have the right though your institution.

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