Learning Python

[JLambert97]

Can somebody please recommend me a free (decent) online course or good book that I can use to learn python. I am interested in learning the language but I'm not too sure what is the best way to go about it. If someone could help me out that would be great.

 

(This will be my first language. No prior programming knowledge)

[bwestlake]

Have a look on youtube

[bladedanny]

give Learn to code | Codecademy as look

[Tesla]

+1 for codecademy

[Joanne]

give Learn to code | Codecademy as look

 

This looks awesome!! Thanks.

[LosOjos]

I find the free eBooks on this site are a great way to learn as you'll be making games which is, let's face it, more interesting than most programming tasks! Plus once you start venturing off to try making your own games, the process of working out how to do things like keep a score board and handle physics really get you thinking about a language.

 

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

 

Start with the text-only stuff, when you're feeling confident with that look at the PyGame book too.

 

Also, for all sorts of resources (not just in Python), have a look at Young Rewired State's website (I know the organisation is aimed at under 18s but coding really has no age range attached to it!)

 

Young Rewired State - Resources for Coders

Edited September 11, 2014 by LosOjos

[mats]

Think Python

[themightymrp]

Codecademy looks great! I've started my Python learning already Thanks for the above link(s)

[Arreks]

I used CodeAcademy and it is by far the easiest way I've seen so far to get into any language, not only does it explain the concepts and information - the online interpreter/compiler lets you easily get hands-on and learn the syntax.

[mikecampbell]

Try Python: Interactive Python Tutorial in the Browser (not tried it though, ironically)

[dhicks]

I am interested in learning the language but I'm not too sure what is the best way to go about it.

 

The above advice is good, but I'd also recommend having a specific project or goal that you're aiming for - a bit of software that does something in particular that you want done. Working through a bunch of examples doesn't neccesarily get you to understand how to apply your programming knowledge to get what you want done into lines of code. This is probably why the Raspberry Pi is proving so popular, especially for Python programming - it's easy to hook up to assorted LEDs and so forth for output, so the what-you-want-to-do part of things can be more interesting, even if it's just something daft like making a flashing Christmas tree decoration.

[halbaradkenafin]

The above advice is good, but I'd also recommend having a specific project or goal that you're aiming for - a bit of software that does something in particular that you want done. Working through a bunch of examples doesn't neccesarily get you to understand how to apply your programming knowledge to get what you want done into lines of code. This is probably why the Raspberry Pi is proving so popular, especially for Python programming - it's easy to hook up to assorted LEDs and so forth for output, so the what-you-want-to-do part of things can be more interesting, even if it's just something daft like making a flashing Christmas tree decoration.

 

Have to agree with this, a project helps a lot and you'll end up trying to find out how to do things relevant to what you want rather than 10 different examples of string concatenation and how to use % to dynamically modify the string.

 

Personally I've been working through the problems at Cryptopal because it leads to some interesting research (IMO) and is introducing you to technique you might not otherwise have looked at.

[ubergeek]

I've had great experiences with raspberry pi cookbook