Skip to Content
Python® Create-Modify-Reuse
book

Python® Create-Modify-Reuse

by Jim Knowlton
July 2008
Intermediate to advanced
287 pages
4h 55m
English
Wrox
Content preview from Python® Create-Modify-Reuse

Chapter 1. A Python Primer

This chapter provides a quick overview of the Python language. The goal in this chapter is not to teach you the Python language — excellent books have been written on that subject, such as Beginning Python (Wrox, 2005). This chapter describes Python's lexical structure and programming conventions, so if you are familiar with other scripting languages such as Perl or Ruby, or with compiled programming languages such as Java or C#, you should easily be up to speed in no time.

Getting Started

Of course, the first thing you need to do is install Python, if you don't already have it. Installers are available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix, and everything from OpenVMS to the Playstation (no, I'm not kidding).

Obtaining Python and Installing It

If you go to www.python.org/download you can find links to download the correct version of Python for your operating system. Follow the install instructions for your particular Python distribution — instructions can vary significantly depending on what operating system you're installing to.

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Webmaster in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Webmaster in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Stephen Spainhour, Robert Eckstein
What Successful Project Managers Do

What Successful Project Managers Do

W. Scott Cameron, Jeffrey S. Russell, Edward J. Hoffman, Alexander Laufer

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780470259320Purchase book