Thread: Tell me about Python

So over the summer I am going to have to teach myself the basics of Python for the lab that I'll be working in. We're going to be doing experiments involving subliminally presented stimuli (20-40 milliseconds), evaluations of pictures and movie/audio clips, and possibly recording reaction time data, as well as asking subjects basic questions - all GUI, obviously. I have programming experience with Java and C++ (I guess that's how I got stuck with this gig) but I don't know much at all about Python.

• Do you know of any good books for learning Python?
• Any good online resources?
• Any tips on using Python specifically to do the things that I listed above?
• Any other things that I should know about Python and/or learning Python?

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks, guys.

Things to keep in mind:

It uses a JIT compiler, so it may speed up and slow down randomly, so use the hardware timer for timing things.

It is the only programming language that I know of that is indentation sensitive. That can be very annoying, but makes code easier to read.

It's a very simple language, no direct access, nor does it have any objects. Most people consider it a scripting language more than a real programming language.

Python doesn't use a JIT...??? (As far as I know apart from the PyPy project)
I think you are thinking of the wrong language, ninja9578.
It is indentation sensitive, yes, but see:

Code:

>>> class A:
...    def __init__(self, x):
...         self.x = x
... 
>>> a = A(16)
>>> a.x
16

Python is strongly object oriented.

Also, http://docs.python.org/tutorial/.

Python is very powerful, from what I've read. But, you have to be a super-indent/space nazi because of the lack of braces.

It shouldn't be too hard...There are good books on it out there. I have one, forgot the name. Also, that link above is where I go the basics of it.

I never got too far into it, I put it aside for C++ and Perl, the latter of which I am currently working on learning. However, GUI programming with Python is supposed to be pretty easy.

The indentation is a non-issue. You indent the same way you would for other imperative languages. Python just ensures that other programmers you're working with don't mis-indent a line by accident. I second the official tutorial. Python's a great language for a lot of tasks (anywhere from simple scripts to larger CLI apps to GUI apps to CGI scripts to web applications to games, etc.), and it has a really compact language definition, making it easy to keep in your head (contrast with C++ and Perl). It also has one of the easiest-to-read syntaxes of any imperative language, and Python code tends to be really concise, saving tons of development time.

^ The indentation is a nuisance however. Learning that before {} programming doesn't seem the way to go with me. I have only seen one language use that indenting style, and that's Python. i'm sure there are more, less known languages with that style, but for mainstream programming, {} seems better to me.