Hi all Thanks so much for the replies so far. I've bought the epub version of Learning Python The Hard Way and have started to work through that. I'll check out the Dummies book and see what that's like.
As to why Python? Well, firstly, it's there and looks interesting. Secondly I've heard Python has some nice data crunching tools and that's something that interests me. For instance, for my job I frequently audit the content of sites. On a per-page basis, I'll grab the h1, h2s, all the links, the meta tags, and the HTTP response code and throw them into a spreadsheet. It's tedious work, especially on a large site, so if I could build a tool to extract that data for me, then that would be great. I also occasionally have to trawl through search logs and they generally need a good amount of cleaning up before I can start to analyze them. I could try to use a mixture of grep and sed to do that, but why not try something else that's probably easier? I'm also interested in what tools there might be to help with analysis of that data. I think that's the gist of why Python :) Francis On Jun 28, 2012, at 10:32 PM, Matt Youell wrote: > Hi Francis! > > Why are you interested in Python vs. other languages? Is there some specific > programming task that you have in mind? Or particular tools/frameworks? > > -- > -/matt/- > http://youell.com/matt > > > > On 6/28/12 2:51 PM, Francis Storr wrote: >> Hi all >> >> First post here; I'm hoping for some advice to get me started with Python. >> I'm a UX designer based in Portland. I started off on the web years ago >> coding (lots of HTML + CSS, a smattering of JavaScript, and some PHP) before >> changing tack and moving into design. For a while now I've wanted to tinker >> with Python but don't know where the best place to start is. I've had a look >> at beginner's books (I am definitely a book person) and there isn't one that >> seems to stand out as being great. Is there one that is better than the >> rest? I'm after something that's not written for the hardcore programmer; >> something that will hold my hand nicely. Also, what would be a better meet >> up for me to attend: the monthly meetup or the monthly hack night? >> >> Thanks :) >> >> Francis >> _______________________________________________ >> Portland mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/portland >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Portland mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/portland _______________________________________________ Portland mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/portland
