So dusted off my Safari books online subscription, and started searching around for stuff to get me up to speed on Python. Want to use it bad for general utilities, and for migrating to OOP based frameworks, to be treated in the manner in which I am accustomed.
Books
Obviously the front line winners are:
But I’m not exactly starting out with OOP, either, having years of experience in C++ and Enterprise Java, and more recently a good couple of years with Ruby, before entering a 4-5 year hiatus fighting my way out of the Drupal GUI interface to get to the code (a difficult yet rewarding process I have shared here on my blog). So isn’t there a cool Python book just for me?
I think I’ve found it, so I put this on my shelf:
It is not to be confused with Head First Programming (which also deals with Python), since it assumes you’ve been there and done that. Will report on this experience.
Python 2 for android, Python 3 for tricks, what’s up with that?
Apparently, Python 2 is what Android uses but Python 3 is the best thing since sliced bread for most everything else, but on my Ubuntu environments (Lucid long tender loving care) Python 2 is the default, and kinda betta stay that way.
So… what’s a man to do?
Turns out it’s simple, simple, simple, in spite of the awkward Ubuntu forum mumblings: Just install the idle 3 package, and it will automatically give you everything you need, all the dependencies, to work with Python 3, while keeping Python 2 as the default system wide version.
So, the best of both worlds is the always the best option on a variety of levels in life, breaking false options is certainly the way to go, as is easy. For example, in Synaptics or aptitude, select idle-python3.1 and install!
All set to go.
Python Roadmap: command line utilities, web apps, mobile apps, whole web architectures… oh my! Will be reporting here as always.