After getting lot of recommendations I have started with Python and here are my thought on it after fiddling with it for the past two weeks.
With in a couple of hours into Python it became evident to me that I have taken the right decision. It’s really very powerful and also you write very minimal but robust code when compared with other languages. Python has the right balance between syntax easiness and powerfulness. Like Java the designers of Python have designed it such a way so that it discourages bad coding but at the same time have not made it too bulky in syntax.
The following are some of the features which I like in Python, presented in no particular order
- No statement delimiter – not even braces to represent block of code, just plain indentations.
- Very very powerful built-in library – It has almost all the features that you want.
- Built in support for complex data types like list and dictionary.
- Short hand multiple assignment statements.
- Powerful introspection
- List comprehensions
and the list goes on…
I have already finished reading Swaroop’s Byte of Python and am currently half way through Mark’s Dive into Python.
If you are a beginner to Python that Byte of Python is an excellent book and once you get a hang of the syntax you can read Dive into Python which teaches you the advanced concepts.