Preface

This book is not for newbies, for wimps, or For Dummies. It assumes a lot about you.

You know at least one real object-oriented language, like Java, C++, or Delphi.
You know at least one scripting language, like Perl, Visual Basic, or JavaScript.
You have already installed Python. See the home page for links to download Python for your favorite operating system. Python 2.0 or later is required; Python 2.2.1 is recommended. Where there are important differences between 2.0 and 2.2.1, they are clearly noted in the text.
You have downloaded the example programs used in this book.

If you’re just getting started programming, that does not mean that you can’t learn Python. Python is an easy language to learn, but you should probably learn it somewhere else. I highly recommend Learning to Program and How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, and Python.org has links to other introductions to Python programming for non-programmers.

Let’s dive in.

Dive Into Python