Learning Python

[Maeda_Toshiie]

I am not CS trained but have some basic programming background: C (NOT C++), Matlab, Perl. I have used C and Matlab for number crunching, while Perl was for some basic scripting to parse text files. I have mostly used structured programming, and only some basic ideas on object oriented programming.

I am thinking of learning Python as a free alternative for Matlab. I don't have a lot of time free but would still like to learn Python. What is the most effective and most efficient way to learn? Any easy introduction to step into?

 

[davidktw]

I am not CS trained but have some basic programming background: C (NOT C++), Matlab, Perl. I have used C and Matlab for number crunching, while Perl was for some basic scripting to parse text files. I have mostly used structured programming, and only some basic ideas on object oriented programming.

I am thinking of learning Python as a free alternative for Matlab. I don't have a lot of time free but would still like to learn Python. What is the most effective and most efficient way to learn? Any easy introduction to step into?

Same as how you learn Perl, C and Matlab

 

[sutm]

I have also just started out on learning python, and I'm reading the following books:

Learning Python - Mark Lutz
The Python Standard Library by Example - Doug Hellmann

I find that the online official documentation for python is quite comprehensive.

As python is used in a wide range of applications, it depends on what sort of applications you are using it for (eg. application plugins, web frameworks, scientific programming etc). Once you are familiarized with the basics, then you may go on to learn more about the specific python modules that are relevant to your application domain.

 

[LightFang]

You could just go and learn from Code Academy since it offers the basic understanding of python. From then u can learn other things for scientific side like SciPy and Matplotlib to do your calculations and graph creation