Copyright
Brief Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Praise for the second edition
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About this book
About the cover illustration
1. Starting out
Chapter 1. About Python
1.1. Why should I use Python?
1.2. What Python does well
1.2.1. Python is easy to use
1.2.2. Python is expressive
1.2.3. Python is readable
1.2.4. Python is complete—“batteries included”
1.2.5. Python is cross-platform
1.2.6. Python is free
1.3. What Python doesn’t do as well
1.3.1. Python isn’t the fastest language
1.3.2. Python doesn’t have the most libraries
1.3.3. Python doesn’t check variable types at compile time
1.3.4. Python doesn’t have much mobile support
1.3.5. Python doesn’t use multiple processors well
1.4. Why learn Python 3?
Summary
Chapter 2. Getting started
2.1. Installing Python
2.2. Basic interactive mode and IDLE
2.2.1. The basic interactive mode
2.2.2. The IDLE integrated development environment
2.2.3. Choosing between basic interactive mode and IDLE