Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Frequently bought together
$33.42
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
+
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
From the brand
-
The Pragmatic Programmers publishes hands-on, practical books on classic and cutting-edge software development and engineering management topics. We help professionals solve real-world problems, hone their skills, and advance their careers.
-
From the Publisher
From the Preface
This book uses the Python programming language to teach introductory computer science topics and a handful of useful applications. You’ll certainly learn a fair amount of Python as you work through this book, but along the way you’ll also learn about issues that every programmer needs to know: ways to approach a problem and break it down into parts, how and why to document your code, how to test your code to help ensure your program does what you want it to, and more.
We chose Python for several reasons:
- It is free and well documented. In fact, Python is one of the largest and best-organized open source projects going.
- It runs everywhere. The reference implementation, written in C, is used on everything from cell phones to supercomputers, and it’s supported by professional-quality installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- It has a clean syntax. Yes, every language makes this claim, but during the several years that we have been using it at the University of Toronto, we have found that students make noticeably fewer 'punctuation' mistakes with Python than with C-like languages.
- It is relevant. Thousands of companies use it every day: it is one of the languages used at Google, Industrial Light & Magic uses it extensively, and large portions of the game EVE Online are written in Python. It is also widely used by academic research groups.
- It is well supported by tools. Legacy editors like vi and Emacs all have Python editing modes, and several professional-quality IDEs are available.
Our Approach
We have organized the book into two parts. The first covers fundamental programming ideas: how to store and manipulate information (numbers, text, lists, sets, dictionaries, and files), how to control the flow of execution (conditionals and loops), how to organize code (functions and modules), how to ensure your code works (testing and debugging), and how to plan your program (algorithms).
The second part of the book consists of more or less independent chapters on more advanced topics that assume all the basic material has been covered. The first of these chapters shows how to create and manage your own types of information. It introduces object-oriented concepts such as encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. The other chapters cover testing, databases, and graphical user interface construction.
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2021
Top reviews from other countries
JSLEE
An entry-level textbook with the "memory model"
Reviewed in Singapore on April 24, 2021
JSLEE
Reviewed in Singapore on April 24, 2021
The presentation of the material in this book reminds me of the textbooks written for tertiary students. The font sizes for normal text are not too small, and that of the code examples, though smaller, are still easily readable. However, the font sizes for the normal text does vary throughout the book, which I find to be strange, but doesn't cause much of an issue for me. There is white space around the text, which allows readers to put in their own notes.
The level of this book is definitely at entry-level, and teaches the basic of computer science using Python 3. All major topics of computer science are covered, with an extensive coverage of features of Python too. I find it interesting that the topic of Functions is introduced in Chapter 3, very early on in the book, and Iteration is postponed till Chapter 9. In between, there are some difficult chapters, like Modules and Methods. The longer code examples in Chapter 10, "Reading and Writing Files", can also be challenging for some entry-level readers. I also don't find their write-up on advanced concepts, like Algorithms, Searching & Sorting and Object-Oriented Programming to be outstanding. I think Jay Wengrow did a better job in his book "A common-sense guide to data structures and algorithms".
However, I have no regrets buying this book. The coverage is wide and thorough. The authors are not afraid to tackle difficult aspects of programming and provide a lot of code examples to make their explanations clearer. You would want to be aware and alerted to the possible pitfalls, and I think the authors have done a great job in this book.
Another aspect that deserves high commendation is the inclusion of programming problems in the book. There is no lack of literature in the market on computing. However, I find that many books have code examples but no programming challenges, making the learning experience incomplete. In this book, there is an exercise section with a decent number of problems at the end of every chapter, except Chapter 1. The problems range in different levels of difficulty: you have the questions with a one-liner answer, and plenty of others that require coding, which is exactly what beginners need. The icing on the cake is that solutions in PDF's are available at the book's website for download for free, which is extremely useful for those who might be struggling with the questions. I personally benefit from comparing my own codes with theirs. A little problem though: there is no explanation to the solutions; the answers are just presented, and sometimes in a haphazard fashion. But this is better than no answers, in my view. At least some help is available if we are stuck.
Another unique feature about this book that I have to mention is their creation of the "memory model" to explain how computers stores data. This model is introduced in Chapter 2, and comes up continually throughout the book. This model allows me to have a deeper understanding of the concept of Aliasing, Mutability and how computers store data for different Python data structures. I believe this takes the level of understanding of a beginner to a deeper level.
I was lucky enough to have ordered this book from Amazon SG during the initial days of COVID, just before prices surged (I purchased it for S$46.65). This book is not all easy, but if one perseveres, I believe one will be rewarded with solid programming knowledge in Python.
Images in this review
