Learning Python, 3rd Edition

This is a really good introduction to Python. It is very clear, accessible and has quite a lot of substantial content. It does not get into the really deep details, but that is OK because if it tried to the book would become overwhelming. On the other hand, unlike some python books it is not so light and superficial to be good for newbies only. I think this is a great starter book on Python.

"This topic will be covered later in the book" is the phrase most often encountered in this book.
Funny - but even on page 593 (out of 635 where appendix begins) we still see "we'll meet such an example in Chapter 28".
It seems like if you take out all the phrases that promise you to explain things in the rest of the book, the book itself will thrink 1/4 of it's size. Why do I even need to be told that you will cover it later in the book - I ASSUME it will be covered if you mention it. If not - refer me to some other resource.
The phrase above is just an example of the writting-alota-words-to-fill-up-space style. The legacy seems to have been carried forward into programming python by the same author on which I am working now.
Unfortunately this seems to be the best book in it's class, and there really is nothing to compare it to (considering it covers python2.5).
Even though I was done with the book in few weeks, I would still have preferred a more concise and to-the-point text.

An excellent book for anyone new to both programming and the Python programming language.

If you want to learn how to program and are unsure where to begin, this book is definitely worth considering, both for it's concise, clear explanation of Python and programming concepts in general, and because the language Python is itself clear and concise.

Pros:
-Clear, concise
-Well written, decent pace
-Good intro for non-programmers
-Leads nicely into Programming Python and Python Cookbook
-Python itself is easy to learn, clear, and yet still powerful and cross-platform

Cons:
-Tends to drag in the beginning, spending too much time going over the details of the language instead of diving right into some useful code.
-NOT for programmers who have other language(s) under their belts. Consider Programming Python instead.

As a ASIC Validation Engineer I need to write many scripts on daily basis. I use Perl for that. Never worked with Python before. I don't have any idea about OOP as well. My knowledge is limited to Verilog/VHDL and C. So I have decided to learn Python to get more flexibility in my job. I tried with many books but none of those are user friendly. If you have previous scripting knowledge and if you want to learn Python very quickly then this is the book for you. I think the best way is to translate your code into Python and then see the magic. I don't recommend this if you don't have good reading habit. Otherwise 5 star for me!

If your goal is to get up to speed quickly with Python this might not be the book for you. Especially if you already have programming experience then you are better off downloading the documentation from python.org. That documentation covers the same material but much more succinctly. For example, in the reference manual at python.org, the "while" statement is described in less than a dozen lines of text, while in "Learning Python" it drags on across multiple pages.

The advantage of "Learning Python" is this: (1) the author shares the style and idioms that experienced Python programmers would use; and (2) the author offers insight into the history and design of the language. This allows the reader to "taste" the language as well as learn it. But for a quick path to learning Python, I would recommend using the website's documentation.