On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 10:37 AM, wesley chun <wes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> My brother in law is learning python. He's downloaded 3.1 for > >> Windows, and is having a play. It's already confused him that print > >> "hello world" gives a syntax error.... > >> > >> He's an absolute beginner with no programming experience at all. I > >> think he might be following 'Python Programming for the Absolute > >> Beginner", or perhaps some online guides. Should I advise him to > >> stick with 2.6 for a bit, since most of the material out there will > >> be for 2.x? Or since he's learning from scratch, should he jump > >> straight to 3.x > > > good question, and already well-answered by most. i'll chime in with a > few remarks too. basically, if he is really starting from scratch, > i.e., no preexisting codebase, not using it for work, etc., then > there's no harm in starting using 3.x as long as you give the caveat > that most tutorials and source out there is still 2.x. 3.x has not > gained widespread adoption yet because not all of the lower-level (nor > higher-level) libraries, packages, and modules have been ported to 3.x > yet. > > i gave a talk recently about this very topic ( > http://siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions.aspx?OnlyOne=true&id=227 ) > and will repeat it again at PyCon 2010 in Atlanta ( > http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/talks -- see session #48 ). > > i get asked this question a lot, esp. when it pertains to my book, > "Core Python Programming." which should i learn? is your book > obsolete? etc. i basically tell them that even though they are > backwards-incompatible, it's not like Python 2 and 3 are sooooo > different that you wouldn't recognize the language anymore! as Kris > has said, there are just a handful of noticeable difference that you > have to just keep in mind. finally, the next edition of the book will > definitely be BOTH Python 2 and 3. Python 2 isn't EOL'd and will be > around for awhile longer -- the most important evidence of this being > that both 2.x and 3.x are being developed in parallel. > > hope this helps! > -- wesley > I just ordered your great book 2nd edition. I dont know if i should get worried using a dated version. All i want is to learn the language. The transition process (i think) should just follow normally once you learn the language. So far I'm just a newbie trying to learn.
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