Python by Example: Learning to Program in 150 Challenges

useless

This book is excellent, but I can see why it got some skeptical reviews. Here's the quick version: it's amazing for what it is, maybe even perfect — but if it isn't for you it REALLY won't be for you.First, you should know that this is a very basic book. It assumes no programming knowledge -- and it doesn't try to teach deep computer science principles or what's going on under the hood.Second, after going through this book, you will still be a beginner in Python. That's not bad, but be aware that this is just a taster, not a comprehensive guide. And I mean not just really sophisticated concepts, but some things that are kind of basic to Python. I was surprised to see exceptions ("try" and "catch") not covered, for example.And third, this book takes a particular teaching approach, with a little intro text but where the learning is intended to be in the doing, with understanding coming from following the progression of challenges.If you're already familiar with programming but new to Python, try The Quick Python Book instead. (It's excellent!). That's also a good choice if you're an intermediate Python programmer looking for the next level. (But if THIS book is all you've got under your belt, it might be a bit much still.)If you want something that really explains as it goes on, with questions being "knowledge checks" at the end of chapters, this definitely isn't for you.But, if you're new to programming, and interested in learning on your own, and get impatient with a lot of theory, this is the right book to start.You don't need to take my word for it! My high-school-age daughter has been vaguely interested in learning to code for a while, but I've never found a good way to teach her. Trying to share with ad-hoc lessons wasn't working (too much "yes, there's a great way to do what you are suggesting but I need to introduce five new concepts!" from me!). Other books were either too much text or too many assumptions -- or just at the wrong level.This one, though — I gave it to her and two days later she's halfway done, proudly showing me her results, and asking good questions. Clearly, this clicked.I just wish there were several more follow-up volumes covering the next steps!

Does the job

I used the book to learn python and I tried it because I have used Nicola Wilkins (Lacey) classroom products and they are always well put together. This book is no exception. It lays out the different programming constructs clearly and gives extra exercises to practice what you have learned. I bought it with a view for preparing students for the IGCSE and in that respect it has helped a lot. I have had to learn it to teach it! I think it might be better atuned to the OCR python teaching, but you will not notice until you get near the end of the book, so I recommend it anyway for IGCSE. Nicola does have contact details if you are stuck, but I have not got an answer to my questions, so this aspect is my only gripe.

I started learning Python in the latter half of last year, using an online MOOC and the accompanying book. It was going really well, though I took a long break from it over Christmas and the New Year, and after I restarted learning again I found I really couldn’t remember a lot of what I’d learned.Rather than going through the course again, I thought this book looked like an deal way to relearn and rediscover what I’d forgotten - and it’s proved to be an excellent resource in that respect. It doesn’t go into the endless, convoluted detail that other courses and books do, nor does it throw too many different topics together in the one chapter (which often leads to confusion). What it does is briefly cover an aspect of the Python language (eg Strings, or the While Loop etc) and give you basic information and a number of simple examples, then sets you a series of code challenges to cover and practice what you’ve covered. As the chapters progress, the coding challenges include the new learning from that chapter, plus things you’ve learned from previous chapters, so you’re getting to grips with new concepts and reinforcing all of the previous concepts. I find that’s the best way for me to learn, as it means that the repetition is forcing my scatterbrain to actually retain the information rather than it going in and straight back out again.As a plus, the exercises don’t expect you to know obscure mathematical formulae or concepts in order to even begin trying to code an answer (unlike far too many other books and courses). They assume you’re someone who doesn’t have a University Maths degree, and the author has devised them so that you’re coding to solve simple, everyday puzzles which have been written in plain English.It really is a great book, with some great illustrations and it’s helped me enormously when it came to relearning and remembering what I’d thought I’d learned and stored away over the previous 3 or 4 months.A Learn To Code book which is actually enjoyable to work through is a rare beast - hats off to Nicola Lacey for producing one!