Zed A. Shaw - Learn More Python 3 the Hard Way: The Next Step for New Python Programmers

The Next Step for New Python Programmers

Zed A. Shaw

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946529

Copyright 2018 Zed A. Shaw

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ISBN-13: 978-0-13-412348-6
ISBN-10: 0-13-412348-4

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Process, creativity, and quality. Burn these three words into your mind while you read this book. Process. Creativity. Quality. This book may be full of exercises that teach important topics every programmer should know, but the real knowledge youll gain from the book is these three words. My goal in writing this book on programming is to teach you what Ive known to be the three most important constants in software. Without process youll flounder around wondering how to get started and have problems maintaining progress on long projects. Without creativity youll be unable to solve the problems youll encounter every day as a programmer. Without quality youll have no idea if anything youre doing is any good.

Teaching you these three concepts is easy. I could simply write three blog posts and say, There ya go, now you know what those three words mean. That isnt going to make you a better programmer and definitely not a person who can work on their own as a developer for the next 10 or 20 years. Simply knowing aboutprocess doesnt mean you can actually apply it in real practice. Reading a blog post about creativity doesnt help you find out how youare creative with code. To really understand these complex topics youll want to internalize them, and the best way to do that is to apply them to simple projects.

As you work through the exercises in this book I will tell you which of the three youll be working on. This is a change from my other books where I try to be sneaky and have you learn concepts without your realization. Im going to be explicit this time because its important that you keep the concept firmly in your mind so you can practice it throughout the exercise. You will then evaluate how well your attempt at applying the practice worked and what you can do to improve the next time. A key component of this book is the ability to reflect on your own capabilities objectively and improve yourself. You do this best by being focused on one technique or practice at a time while accomplishing some other goal.