Learning Python

What Hacker News says

1. atribecalledqstMay 2026
   I've cracked into quite a few programming books over the years and it's pretty crazy how much of an advantage it's given me. I'm a lowly systems engineer, not even a real programmer, but I definitely understand networking better than the majority of programmers at my company because I read Stevens' TCP/IP Illustrated 10 years back. (and I read the OLD version from the 90s that was already dated when I read it!) And then I read UNIX Network Programming to help understand all the different sockets APIs and that's paid dividends too, because I get our network programming code better than most of my coworkers too.

   Then there was that one time I was self-studying computer architecture (Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective) and was able to turn what I learned around and hack our binary code at a customer site because I wasn't in an environment where I could compile our code... and then years later, when I wanted to analyze the ROM of a 90s electronic device with a much simpler instruction set than x86, I wasn't afraid to crack open the thing in Ghidra

   Let's see, what else have I read that's paid dividends over the years:

   - Modern Operating Systems (Tannenbaum)

   - Learning Python (Lutz)

   - JavaScript - The Definitive Guide (Flanagan)

   - Programming PHP (Tatroe)

   - Learning Web Design (Robbins)

   - Algorithms (Sedgewick)

   - A book I read whose name escapes me now, about technologies like RS-282/RS-484 and serial communications in general

   - (I could probably put down Cuckoo's Egg too as an "inspiration" for me ultimately getting interested in computers and networking, and I bet that's not too uncommon a story)

   It's probably a sign of my age (mid 30s for reference), but when I'm curious about something and want to learn it really deeply - I look for a good book on the topic. (although I'm willing to admit that maybe this process hinders me in some ways, because it means I sometimes spend more time studying than I actually do working with a thing - I have spent a LOT more time reading about circuits than building them - but I like studying so I'm happy either way)

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2. hugsJul 2024
   Yup... The current size of the Nim community reminds me of the perceived size of the Python community when I first started using Python around 2000-2001. (I'm still amazed how popular Python is now. People said it would never happen because significant whitespace was such a fatal dealbreaker!) Back then, all I needed to get going was the book Learning Python (1st Edition) by Mark Lutz. Lack of massive corporate support didn't stop me. Python didn't really have the same kind of "Big Tech" corporate backing like Java had from Sun, though Python did have just enough to keep going. Google formally supporting Python internally definitely helped a lot. It feels like Nim is one similar ("Google uses Python!") announcement away from getting on a similar growth path.
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3. xuesjApr 2022
   Some books I've read and think good: 1. the whirlwind tour of python 2. the Hitchhiker's guide to python 3. Writing idiomatic Python 4. Learning Python.
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4. tt433Dec 2020
   Lutz's (not free) "Learning Python" was my first computer science book, and it holds up on repeated reads.
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5. mirceaulinicAug 2018
   I had prior experience with other programming / scripting languages, and picking Python up felt very natural.

   I started with Mark Lutz's Learning Python (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596513986.do) about 10 years ago. In the meanwhile I've been an active contributor to large Python-based open source projects, e.g., Salt (https://github.com/saltstack/salt) which not only that it helped me get feedback from people with a tremendous experience, but also reading through the code taught me good practices and many good ways to solve various problems. A few months ago I started reading Luciano Ramalho's Fluent Python (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032519.do) which is just beautifully written and with a wide variety of topics for a deeper look inside Python internals.

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6. ajkumar25Jun 2014
   Learning Python 5/E (http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-Edition-Mark-Lutz/dp/1...). This book is great book for both intermediate and advanced developers. Very in-depth.
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