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Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming 1st Edition
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Python Crash Course is a fast-paced, thorough introduction to programming with Python that will have you writing programs, solving problems, and making things that work in no time.
In the first half of the book, you'll learn about basic programming concepts, such as lists, dictionaries, classes, and loops, and practice writing clean and readable code with exercises for each topic. You'll also learn how to make your programs interactive and how to test your code safely before adding it to a project. In the second half of the book, you'll put your new knowledge into practice with three substantial projects: a Space Invaders-inspired arcade game, data visualizations with Python's super-handy libraries, and a simple web app you can deploy online.
As you work through Python Crash Course, you'll learn how to:
- Use powerful Python libraries and tools, including matplotlib, NumPy, and Pygal
- Make 2D games that respond to keypresses and mouse clicks, and that grow more difficult as the game progresses
- Work with data to generate interactive visualizations
- Create and customize simple web apps and deploy them safely online
- Deal with mistakes and errors so you can solve your own programming problems
If you've been thinking seriously about digging into programming, Python Crash Course will get you up to speed and have you writing real programs fast. Why wait any longer? Start your engines and code!
- ISBN-101593276036
- ISBN-13978-1593276034
- Edition1st
- PublisherNo Starch Press
- Publication dateNovember 30, 2015
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7 x 1.31 x 9.25 inches
- Print length560 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Python Crash Course was selected as one of the best books for learning Python by Real Python
“It has been interesting to see, over the last few years, No Starch Press, which produces this book, growing and producing future classics that should be alongside the more traditional O’Reilly Press programming books. Python Crash Course is one of those books.”
—Greg Laden, ScienceBlogs
“All of these projects are well thought out and presented in such a way that learning the subject matter and implementing it is much more an enjoyable pastime rather than an onerous task that must be completed. Eric took the time to deal with some rather complex projects and lay them out in a consistent, logical and pleasant manner that draws the reader into the subject willingly, which unfortunately, many authors fail to do.”
—Full Circle Magazine
“The book is well presented with good explanations of the code snippets. It works with you, one small step at a time, building more complex code, explaining what's going on all the way.”
—FlickThrough Reviews
“Learning Python with Python Crash Course was an extremely positive experience! A great choice if you’re new to Python.”
—Mikke Goes Coding
About the Author
Eric Matthes is a high school math and science teacher living in Alaska who teaches an Introduction to Programming class in Python. He has been writing programs since he was five years old.
Product details
- Publisher : No Starch Press; 1st edition (November 30, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 560 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1593276036
- ISBN-13 : 978-1593276034
- Reading age : 10 years and up
- Item Weight : 2.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 7 x 1.31 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #214,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Children's Programming Books
- #197 in Introductory & Beginning Programming
- #203 in Python Programming
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
![Eric Matthes](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/g3ct6fuc3vgoaoru67ioogfufm._SY600_.jpg)
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Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book's learning material simple and lucid, helping them build programming skills. They appreciate the practical application of what is being taught, and the engaging exercises that reinforce concepts. The examples provided are real-world examples that help reinforce the concepts. Many customers consider the book well worth the money, with clean code style and examples to practice with. However, some customers find the code sample font illegible, making it difficult to read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book's sample code simple and easy to follow. They appreciate the lucid explanations of inheritances and how the author builds skills step-by-step. The book is described as an excellent method for learning Python, building concepts slowly and developing skills. The Django tutorial helps at first for getting setup, but it becomes repetitive. Overall, customers find the book helpful for learning Python and consider it a must-have in their Python learning arsenal.
"...so it feels like you are always learning something new, but not going too fast, and the book also never gets boring...." Read more
"...Now some of the things that made my head hurt thinking about doing, are fun and easy. And no mistakes, so that is a plus too...." Read more
"...The data analysis project was very illustrative about the capabilities of using python and graphics addins...." Read more
"...The first chapter shows you step-by-step on downloading and installing Python and subsequent chapters (2 - 11) introduces readers with examples and..." Read more
Customers find the book's learning material engaging and helpful for building basic programming skills. They appreciate the practical application of what is being taught, finding it fun and fulfilling to write code that does exactly what they want. The book covers useful techniques in Python and beyond, taking you step-by-step, building your skills slowly and developing your confidence. It also introduces projects that are fun and enjoyable.
"...and go back later to make it more efficient, which I think is excellent advice and as I mentioned before, removes intimidation from anyone who might..." Read more
"This book really helped. Best decision I ever made for my job was read this book, and follow along with it...." Read more
"...expert and I can't imagine it will make you employable, but it is a good start and will prepare you to move on...." Read more
"...Great primer. Comparison:..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's learning style. They find the exercises appropriate for the chapter and the writing clear. The exercises are fun and interesting, and readers can follow them based on what they have learned. The projects are enjoyable and rewarding.
"...It is clear that he has a lot of insight and has done a lot of work." Read more
"...I was able to follow the exercises and do them based solely on what I had learned as well...." Read more
"...It has clearly explained examples and exercises at strategic parts in each chapter...." Read more
"...Also, how to make simple arcade-style games (very fun and interesting for me)..." Read more
Customers find the book provides practical examples and detailed explanations. They appreciate the hands-on projects and real-world scenarios that reinforce the concepts. The book covers all the core topics and offers a wide range of projects at the end of each chapter. It doesn't overwhelm with esoteric content.
"...There are also lots of "Try It Yourself" sections that give examples of little programs to make in order to practice...." Read more
"...well as Data Visualizations and Charts - this book has greatly opened my eyes to the powers (and limitations) of coding in Python!..." Read more
"...The whole later half is all sorts of projects, some graphical, some data manipulating, so it touches on various aspects of the language but in..." Read more
"...Every example is great and easy to relate to...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They say it's well worth the price, and you won't be disappointed.
"...I like to think the reasonable price for the book bakes in that additional purchase." Read more
"...It was completely worth it...." Read more
"...on - Wax off approach for the first 220 pages with very little value in the basic definitions of each area covered...." Read more
"...you to syntax, it is the projects in this book that make it worth purchasing...." Read more
Customers appreciate the code style in the book. They find it looks good, and the book provides lessons on styling and best practices. The sample code is simple enough to understand and follow, and the concepts are introduced in a clear manner.
"...Eric also gives lessons on styling, and best practices, yet also says to just focus on getting things to work and go back later to make it more..." Read more
"...Matthes has a clear and engaging style. He provides excellent sample code - simple enough to understand and follow, complex enough to be interesting...." Read more
"...point out the importance of proper program/code structuring and styling your code to make it easier for those who may wind up picking up your code..." Read more
"...Part 2: Projects to be a little annoying a larger blocks of Code are broken up into snippets...." Read more
Customers find the code sample fonts difficult to read. They mention that the typesetting has problems, programming is challenging enough without poor writing. The book itself is poorly printed, with a cover coming off after a week. Some customers also mention that the code example fonts don't display on iOS devices, and the Kindle formatting is horrible.
"...Even on a new Kindle the code snippets are rendered in a small and faint font (perhaps as images since they are not scalable in any way)...." Read more
"...Crash Course", the snippets of code were (in the past) very difficult to read. Now that is fixed and the snippets of code are perfectly legible...." Read more
"...I've already found some typos in the first chapter though...." Read more
"...First on the kindle, som of the code is almost invisible, even in a well lit room...." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the book binding. They mention the glue is weak, the binding has already come off, and the cover is just glued with the rest of the papers.
"...The binding is awful. The pics are from the first day and the same thing occurred with my previous book...." Read more
"...The only downside to this otherwise excellent book is the weak glue on the binding...." Read more
"...Unfortunately, the copy I bought for myself has the worst binding I have seen in my life - and I have seen really low cost copies of books...." Read more
"...my book binding is not the best, but i’m not experiencing any actual issue so beside a the visual and aesthetic aspect." Read more
Reviews with images
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Content Good / Kindle Formatting is Horrendous
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016I have experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I wanted to start fresh on a new language. For some reason, Python seemed very attractive and I made a commitment to learn it in 2016. After taking a few courses at Treehouse, I decided I would like a book, because there is something about text that feels more concrete than videos. This book stood out to me so I gave it a shot, and I am glad I did.
The tone of this book is very easy going. It's moderately paced, so it feels like you are always learning something new, but not going too fast, and the book also never gets boring. It's very similar to other learning books, in that every new concept builds from the previous, etc...but Eric writes in such a way that there is no intimidation. Just a great style of writing.
One of my favorite parts of this book is that every chapter has "Try It Yourself" sections that give you objectives based on what you've been learning about. I know other textbooks have similar offerings at the end of chapters, but these seem to blend in with the material so well, and they're nothing complicated. They're like friendly reinforcements to the concepts you just learned about, and a great jumpstart to get coding.
Crash Course covers Python 3, and highlights the areas where Python 2 would be different. Eric also gives lessons on styling, and best practices, yet also says to just focus on getting things to work and go back later to make it more efficient, which I think is excellent advice and as I mentioned before, removes intimidation from anyone who might be worried they aren't up to par to code.
I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an introduction to Python. This will help start the foundation.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2017This book really helped. Best decision I ever made for my job was read this book, and follow along with it. I did not do the games in the book, but I bet they are just as fun as the first part. This book taught me you do not have to be a expert, just have to get things to work. Focus on perfecting it when you understand what is under the hood. After a week looking at this book I started building small programs at work to help automate some time consuming basic tasks. Now some of the things that made my head hurt thinking about doing, are fun and easy. And no mistakes, so that is a plus too. Who cares if there is grammatical errors, or some minor syntax mistakes in it, the narrative and the flow are exactly what I needed to progress and learn something I never thought I could..(No i am not a expert in Python because of this book, but at least I know what it does and how to start using it now)
I would recommend before you start reading and following along is to install Geany, and watch a few youtube videos on how Geany works. Hell watch them while your waiting for the book to be delivered :)
No one is perfect, don't judge on perfection, because that in and of itself is imperfect.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020First of all, I'm neither a novice nor an expert programmer. I have successfully programmed in many languages over the course of my career as an electrical engineer. Mostly however, I just learned enough to code up whatever was required to solve a specific problem. This book is a good, from the ground up, organized approach to learning basic Python. It won't make you an expert and I can't imagine it will make you employable, but it is a good start and will prepare you to move on. I liked the programming chapters and to some extent I enjoyed the projects. I found that the projects relied too much on just entering calls to add-in programs and didn't provide much insight into what was actually happening. I successfully built the aliens game and that provided some insight into pygame and the use of python. The data analysis project was very illustrative about the capabilities of using python and graphics addins. The Django section however, was maddening. It is possible that because I used PyCharm as my IDE but I was continually getting hung up on one trivial mis-step after another. I suspect that the only way to get successfully through the project is to use the exact IDE, python version, and Django version that the author used. At one point, for instance I was hung up for several days before I found that some particular Django call was known to not work in Python 3.7 and required 3.7.1. So I upgraded to 3.8 and the latest version of Django then got hung up on something else that didn't work even though I resorted to just pasting in the code from the book ( this occurred in the logins section). So I have now abandoned the book and will move on to something else. Somewhat disappointing to get this far and find a case of diminishing returns.
Overall, it is a good book and an achievement for the author. It is clear that he has a lot of insight and has done a lot of work.
Top reviews from other countries
- ZzZNetworksReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Introduction to Programming
Python Crash Course is an outstanding book that excels in its beginner-friendly approach to programming. It stands as the best resource I've encountered thus far for learning how to code.
-
Nekr0Reviewed in Mexico on May 16, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Explicaciones claras y paso a paso. Recomendadisimo!!
Me gusto mucho la forma que se uso para explicar cada concepto de programación con el lenguaje de Python. Creo que es un muy buen libro para principiantes (como yo). Aunque ya esta disponible su 2da Edición!!, y supongo trae algunas actualizaciones de contenido, así que no la pienses mas y a por él!!!
Con respecto al estado físico del libro, todo estuvo bien y la entrega fue a tiempo por parte de Amazon.
NOTA:
Hay un detalle con el diseño de el "lomo y la cubierta", lo que le llaman en Ingles "Lay Flat Binding", ya que al poco tiempo se despego la cubierta por uno de los costados del libro, a pesar de que siempre leo sobre mi escritorio.
-
FABRICIO CARVALHOReviewed in Brazil on January 23, 2019
4.0 out of 5 stars Livro muito bom para o inciante e para quem quer migrar de outra linguagem para Python.
Esse livro é ótimo para os iniciantes na programação em Python. Apresenta exemplos e exercícios simples, além de prover material de apoio (respostas, códigos, etc.) no site do autor. Para um programador experiente como eu, que tem forte background em outras linguagens de programação (ex. Java, Javascript e C), é de facílima leitura e consome aproximadamente 1 ou 2 h por capítulo, dependendo do fato de você fazer ou não os códigos e exercícios do zero, acompanhando o fluxo da leitura. Em 2 semanas terminei a leitura completa e fiz mais da metade dos exercícios. MInha única crítica é que a parte 2 (projetos) que ocupa a metade do livro, aproximadamente, pode não interessar a todos os leitores e pode ser dispensável. Se o livro fosse mais barato, contendo só a primeira metade e os projetos fossem suplementares (no site do autor), eu daria 5 estrelas como avaliação. Obs: Utilizo a versão em inglês.
- Tushar M.Reviewed in India on July 3, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to learn Python....
This is a great book to learn the Python language. This book is for beginners as well as intermediate learners. This book is divided into 2 sections. Section 1 is about language basics and section 2 is all about how to do projects in Python. In the projects section, you will get to know how to make a simple Alien shooter game using Pygame and Python, how to do visualization by making graphs and how to make a web application by using Django and Python. This book balances the theory and examples. This book is not verbose. This book teaches you just that concept that you will need to learn the language and how to use that concept in the projects. And in Section 2 You will get to know those concepts that you don't find in Section 1. This is the best Python book I have read until now. Buy this book and enjoy the fruits of learning Python language.
- Robby KayReviewed in Canada on July 22, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Follow, Great for Beginners
Excellent book. I'm a fairly novice programmer and I'm only about a third of the way through, but so far I find this book easy to follow and fun. I'm looking forward to the more advanced stuff.