When I ordered this book, I made a mistake, blinded by good reviews and cheap price π
My fault, because I wanted to refresh a bit my python skills but this book is for total beginner (non-programmer).
But finally, this is the kind of errors that does not hurt... Even the contrary, I quickly read this book and it was cool :)
Review of the different parts
This book starts very slowly, not a surprise actually π
It is illustrated by cool examples (I mean code snippets).
Sometimes, notions are less smooth and a bit parachuted like modules and later setup.py, but I say this because I tried to put me in the shoes of a total beginner.
After some time, it goes into more real world examples like programming a small game or a mini web app.
The chapters about the game with objects is nice but contains big snippet and a lot of prints.
The overall was pleasant to read but I cheated and do not followed "the hard way" (typing all the snippets) π
Strong opinion about programming...
The author has strong opinions, mainly to try to "keep is simple" for the reader. Here are some :
- "Inheritance is evil forest"
- "Multiple inheritance is evil queen"
The author also recommends "Shot gun prints", I don't know what to say about it, it's not totally true nor false.
...but not about language
He is preaching for making people learn a lot of languages :
- "When learning a language, donβt be a stupid tourist"
- "Donβt be religious with a language"
I'm not sure about his definition of knowing a language since he consider being able to learn a new language in 1 day to 1 week.
Critical about programmer job
Along the book (and even more in the "advice from an old programmer" section), the author is very critic about programmer job, and I find it very interesting.
For instance, it is said:
- "Become programmer, only if you can't imagine doing something else"
- "Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting."
It is also recommended to apply IT science to something real like physics, medicine or industry and not only "IT for IT".
Conclusion
I will conclude with this citation "Programming is the only form of art that allows you to create interactive art" and by saying that it is a nice book π