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how to use this book

Read Me

This is a learning experience, not a reference book. We deliberately stripped out everything
that might get in the way of learning whatever it is we’re working on at that point in the
book. And the first time through, you need to begin at the beginning, because the book
makes assumptions about what you’ve already seen and learned.

This is not Head First Python.
We use release 3 of the Python programming language throughout this book, but this
fact alone does not make this book Head First Python. We chose Python because it’s a great
programming language to start with and it’s also a great programming language to grow
with. In fact, Python might be the only programming language you’ll ever need to learn
and use (although your employer might think otherwise). Of course, you have to start with
something, and we can think of no better programming language to use than Python when
first learning how to program. That said, this book isn’t designed to teach you Python;
it’s designed to teach you programming, so most of the things we show you are designed to
hightlight the programming concept, not the Python feature.

You need to install Python 3 on your computer.

To run the programs in this book, you need to download and install Python 3 on your
computer. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. Pop on over to the Python download site and
select the option that fits best with the computer you are using. Just be sure to select release
3 of Python, not release 2: http://www.python.org/download.

We begin by teaching some basic programming concepts, then we
start putting programming to work for you right away.
We cover the fundamentals of programming in Chapter 1. That way, by the time you
make it all the way to Chapter 2, you are creating programs that actually do something
real, useful, and—gulp!—fun. We are guessing you’ll be amazed by how much you can do
with less than a dozen lines of code in Chapter 2. The rest of the book then builds on your
programming skills turning you from programming newbie to coding ninja master in no time.

xxx intro