learn python

I’m looking to write a spaced repetition learning and studying program. There are plenty of free options out there already, so I’m primarily doing it for practise – if I have something useful at the end of it, all the better.

I had been reading through Programming in Python 3 by Mark Summerfield, which is one of the only books on Python 3 out there right now – it has a lot of useful information, but there will be better books I think. Much better was Think Python – How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, which I just finished a few days ago – that is what I would recommend for any beginning programmer learning to start with Python, being clearly written, with very interesting exercises and teaching useful computer science concepts. So now I’ll be concentrating on building my program, gaining experience and getting used to some of the libraries – and by the time Dive Into Python 3 is finished, I’ll be ready for it.

and seeing the beauty in it – iterating in Python is so elegant. I’m now past the stage where every third line of code has an annoying bug, and getting more familiar with it. So many shortcuts and idioms. Anyway, it’s going well, and I’m building a program that showcases Python demos and exercises as practice – having rewritten the code many, many times, each time incorporating something new I’d just learnt or adding a new feature or …refactoring, I think it’s called? I do wonder if I can learn all the Computer Science stuff people learn in university online. Algorithms and linked lists and binary trees and such. Those come later though – after I have the basics down.

It’s going well – but there’s a vast amount to learn. Have been working through online tutorials, but found it’s not the best way for me to learn – I need to learn by doing. So after skimming through some of the tutorials to let my brain absorb some of the very basics, I’ve been coming up with ideas for small doable projects and trying to make them happen. Not easy by any means, and I’m still having to look up everything, but I’m learning, and xcited by what I can do with it – I already have big project ideas in mind for it :) But I’ve been rushing myself a bit, as I’d like to have enough knowledge and experience with Python to be able to put it on my CV – from what I’ve seen, jobs with Python pay well, and while I believe it’s only going to become more popular, especially with the backing of Google, there aren’t yet as many people who know it as say, PHP. The medium-term plan would be to familiarise myself with it as much as possible, then contribute to open-source projects while building my own programs. I’m enjoying learning a little of it every day – I only wish it could happen faster :)