Zed Shaw has perfected the world's best system for learning Python. Follow it and you will succeed-just like the hundreds of thousands of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else.



In Learn Python the Hard Way, Third Edition, you'll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you'll learn how software works; what good programs look like; how to read, write, and think about code; and how to find and fix your mistakes using tricks professional programmers use. Most importantly, you'll learn the following, which you need to start writing excellent Python software of your own:

Installing a complete Python environment
Organizing and writing code
Basic mathematics
Variables
Strings and text
Interacting with users
Working with files
Looping and logic
Data structures using lists and dictionaries
Program design
Object-oriented programming
Inheritance and composition
Modules, classes, and objects
Python packaging
Debugging
Automated testing
Basic game development
Basic web development