Recommend Python book and compiler...

quantnoob · Post by **quantnoob** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:15 pm

I'm looking to get started with Python. What are your recommendations for a book and compiler on which to learn the language?

signalseeker · Post by **signalseeker** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:40 am

I could give you some very good tips, if you tell us what is your level of sophistication with programming.

compiler? :)

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:55 am

See this [url=/Show%20Post.aspx?PostIDKey=24026]thread[/url] where I asked what seems to be similar questions, starting from scratch same as you. In the end, I am using Enthought Python, Rpython and R. Python is intended to be for a front end, and R is used for the time series tools in the zoo and tseries libraries. I have improved the python code since I posted there, and intend to post a new set for people to use.

I bought Langtangen's book on python and have found that it would probably be more useful if I was on a linux box and had all stuff like gnuplot actually working. In the end, I couldn't get most of the stuff he used to work on WinXP, so I bailed. I still think it's a nice book, though. Again, see that other thread for the reference.

rod · Post by **rod** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:55 pm

I have been reading Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Python and I think it's a very good book.

To make it even better, a PDF version of the book plus all the code presented on the book are available for download for free Smiley

One day, all programming books will be like this *sigh*

dgtvr · Post by **dgtvr** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:48 am

Thank you for the link Rod!

ast4 · Post by **ast4** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:45 pm

IIRC, you can use the terminal if you're on a UNIX system. Quantnoob, give me your email and I can send you a few books I have saved.

rod · Post by **rod** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:31 pm

This should be helpful:

List of Free Online Python Books

Python books and tutorials galore!

mingon · Post by **mingon** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:44 pm

Very much off topic, but here goes anyway, anyone could shed a light on how random is implemented in [b]scipy / numpy[/b] ? Google only told me this RNG is a Mersenne Twister, and any more details are much appreciated. Is Scipy / Numpy open source ?

Many thanks and please be kind, I have next to zero experience in Python.

tristanreid · Post by **tristanreid** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:50 pm

Yes, they're both open source, distributed under the BSD license.

numpy is where random is implemented, with scipy using numpy. It implements the Mersenne Twister as the base implementation, but it provides mechanisms to override that with something that is actually...random.

So if you provide the same seed, you'll get the same 'random' sequence. If you don't provide a seed, it will ask the OS for one. If you've got hardware that generates random numbers, you can therefore get a truly random number by just not providing a seed. On a unix-type platform, this is the same as /dev/urandom or something like that. If you don't have special hardware, I think it's just going to use your system clock, but you can google to verify.

-t.

mingon · Post by **mingon** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:22 pm

Thanks TristandReid, that is very helpful.