>A Byte of Python

History Lesson

I first started with Python when I needed to write an installer for my software Diamond so that I could make the installation easy. I had to choose between Python or Perl bindings for the Qt library. I did some research on the web and I came across an article where Eric S Raymond (affectionately called ESR) talked about how Python became his favorite programming language. I also found out that the PyQt bindings were very good. So I decided that Python was the language for me.

I then started searching for a good book on Python. I couldn't find any! I kept wondering why, though I found some O'Reilly books - they were either too expensive or were more like a reference manual than a guide. I settled for the documentation that came with Python, but it was too brief. It did give a good idea about Python but an incomplete one and although I managed with it, I felt it was completely unsuitable for newbies.

About six months after my first brush with Python, I installed the (then) latest Red Hat 9.0 Linux and I was playing around with KWord when I suddenly got the idea of writing some stuff on Python. It quickly became 30 pages long and I became serious about converting it into a complete book. After many improvements and rewrites, it has reached this stage where it has become a useful and complete guide to learning the Python language. This book is my contribution and tribute to the open source community.

In the true spirit of open source, I have received lots of constructive suggestions and criticisms which have helped me improve this book a lot.