Is Python a

In addition, this entire edition integrates a new set of Python tips and tricks, gleanedfrom teaching classes during the last 10 years, and using Python for real work overthe last 15. The exercises have also been updated and expanded to reflect currentPython best practices, new language features, and common beginners’ mistakeswitnessed firsthand in classes. Overall, the core language coverage provided by thisedition is larger than in previous editions, both because Python is larger, and becauseI’ve added contextual information that has proved to be important in practice.This Edition’s Structural ChangesAs in the prior edition, to accommodate the fact that this book is now more complete,its material has been split into bite-sized chunks. That is, I’ve organized thecore language material into many multichapter parts to make the material easier totackle. Types and statements, for instance, are now two top-level parts, with onechapter for each major type and statement topic. This new structure is designed toallow the book to say more without intimidating readers. In the process, exercisesand “gotchas” (common mistakes) were moved from chapter ends to part ends—they now appear at the end of the last chapter in each part.In this third edition, I’ve also augmented the end-of-part exercises with end-of-chaptersummaries and end-of-chapter quizzes to help you review chapters as you completethem. Each chapter concludes with a set of questions to help you review and test yourunderstanding of the chapter’s material. Unlike the end-of-part exercises, whosesolutions are presented in Appendix B, the solutions to the end-of-chapter quizzesappear immediately after the questions; I encourage you to look at the solutions evenif you’re sure you’ve answered the questions correctly because the answers are a sortof review in themselves.Despite all the new topics, this book is still oriented toward Python newcomers, andis designed to be a first Python text for programmers. * It retains much of the first twoeditions’ material, structure, and focus. Where appropriate, I’ve expanded introductionsfor newcomers, and isolated the more advanced new topics from the mainthread of discussion to avoid obscuring the fundamentals. Moreover, because it islargely based on time-tested training experience and materials, this edition, like thefirst two, can still serve as a self-paced introductory Python class.* And by “programmers,” I mean anyone who has written a single line of code in any programming or scriptinglanguage in the past. If this doesn’t include you, you will probably find this book useful anyhow, but beaware that it will spend more time teaching Python than programming fundamentals.Preface | xxxi