Book excerpts:

Learning To Program in Python is intended for absolute beginners on web programming. It covers the basic theory of computer programming - what it is, some of its history and the basic techniques needed to solve problems. It doesn't teach esoteric techniques or the details of any particular programming language, in fact it uses several different languages, since it is important to realize that different languages do different things well. That said, the majority of the course is in the language called Python.

The readers are expected to be an experienced users of a computer system, probably MS DOS, Windows or Unix although others should be able to cope too. Which is why this book doesn't cover issues like how to create or copy text files, how to install software, or the organization of files on a computer storage system. They are also expected to understand basic mathematical concepts such as geometric coordinates, sets, and basic algebra.

Python is chosen because it happens to be a nice language to learn. Its syntax is simple and it has some very powerful features built into the language. It supports lots of programming styles from the very simple through to state of the art object oriented techniques. It runs on lots of platforms - Unix/Linux, MS Windows, Macintosh etc. It also has a very friendly and helpful user community. All of these are important features for a beginner's language.

Updates: The book now features VBScript and JavaScript as well as Python as example languages.

Reviews:

Amazon.com

:) "The tone of the book was perfect for me. It eased me into the world of programming while keeping me rooted in concepts I could relate too. The author is very sympathetic to the needs of readers like me, who are not naturally enclined programmers but need to get into the field."