Dive into Python

What Hacker News says

1. alberto-mMar 2026
   This quote from “Dive into Python” when I was a fresh graduate was one of the most impacting lines I ever read in a programming book.

   > Busywork code is not important. Data is important. And data is not difficult. It's only data. If you have too much, filter it. If it's not what you want, map it. Focus on the data; leave the busywork behind.

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2. scott_sJul 2024
   I love the code-first approach. It was a revelation to me when I first read Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Python (https://diveintopython3.net/).
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3. coldteaAug 2023
   >Also Mark must've felt like a fish out of water at IBM.

   Huh?

   Dissapearenace aside, he is (or was) a programmer, writer and blogger, with quite regular opinions, not some quirky magical writer of whimsy.

   I can understand _why_'s fox-ladden guide to Ruby to be considered "quirky" but there's nothing quirky about Dive Into Python, I can't even understand how one would get that idea (I'd consider the thought itself quirky!).

   And how is the choice of "roman numeral conversion as an exercise" quirky in any way? As far as programming exercises go, it's quite standard and straightforward.

   People are likely to know a little about roman numerals (if not from anything else, from movie and game titles using roman numerals), and there's a mapping with well defined rules between roman and decimal representations.

   Oh, and Dive into Python was quite popular, and it was even put in print (both editions), iirc from Apress. Mark had also written a few books for O'Reilly, back when doing so was kind of a bigger deal.

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4. giantrobotAug 2023
   Python, like Perl before it, also had some very well written books that were very accessible if you were interested in the language. Learning Python and Programming Python first came out in the 90s and then Dive Into Python was released in 2000. I think these really helped with Python's momentum when FOSS platforms were also building momentum and being taken seriously.
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5. viksitApr 2023
   Most books I’ve come across tend to focus on React and friends. Is there something that’s like the Dive into Python or some of the rust books?
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6. pepipoxApr 2022
   If you are already a programmer and you are looking to learn Python (not how to program) I recommend 'Dive into Python 3'

   https://diveintopython3.problemsolving.io/

   It teaches the language and many of its subtleties. It is fairly good to learn Python and is free. It is not however, a book for beginners in programming, it is for programmers wanting to learn Python.

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