Help Wanted

books for Python, SharpDevelop, etc. – graynod

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
CPUFreak91 made a post asking about a book to download on Python, I'm trying to learn Python too and found a cool free book here:
http://diveintopython.org/

There are a lot of other neat links you might want to check out there too, for instance the link to "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist."

I also found a couple of free books (1 on SharpDevelop, 1 on PHP & MySQL) that you might want to grab at this site:
http://www.apress.com/free/index.html

I was thinking maybe it would be good to start a thread so we can list free books on/about programming like these, what do y'all think? Any others available?

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

D-SIPL

Moderator

Posts: 1345
From: Maesteg, Wales
Registered: 07-21-2001
A friend of mine starting learning python, he didn't know anything about programming before, so he bought Python Programming: For the absolute beginner. I looked at it and could have given it to my 8 year old cousin. Dead simple stuff, at the end you finish by writing a full 2d game using the PyGame library which is based on SDL.

--D-SIPL

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"One World. One Web. One Program." -Microsoft promotional advertisement
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!" -Adolf Hitler

CPUFreak91

Member

Posts: 2337
From:
Registered: 02-01-2005
Hmm, I think I'll try that.

A new thread would be great.

[This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited February 15, 2005).]

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
lOl D-SPL, I was just looking at Python books this evening, yah I found most really too simplistic. What's up with that? Someday I'll look into the free one I downloaded... So far I've just done a few tutorials I found & the language does look like it should be easy to pick up, if ugly. I've been inspired by this page on hacking:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

Also, here's a site about general programming, using Lisp:
http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/

May God bless you all and strengthen you as you seek out programming skills and put them to use.

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

D-SIPL

Moderator

Posts: 1345
From: Maesteg, Wales
Registered: 07-21-2001
Lol ok. Well i'm gonna write a tutorial this afternoon hopefully.

--D-SIPL

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"One World. One Web. One Program." -Microsoft promotional advertisement
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!" -Adolf Hitler

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
here's some more Lisp stuff:

http://common-lisp.net/project/lispbox/
(I'm playing with some tutorials in Windows, I'm not emacs savvy at all, I'm a vi fan... I chose the CLISP 2.33 module, works great.)

http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
(The tutorials I'm following.)

http://www.htdp.org/
(Also hitting the "How to Design Programs" pages I referred to earlier.)

http://www.schemers.org/Documents/#all-texts

http://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/
(get MIT scheme here.)

Not that anyone that I've noticed in these forums is interested in Lisp, but it is a nice hackerly, thoughtful language & good exercise to study. I hope you're all doing great hacking away, may the Lord bless all our studies and guide our ways.

PS: more:
http://paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html

PPS: and more:
http://www.byteofpython.info/
(this is a very nice intro to Python for newbies !)


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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

[This message has been edited by graynod (edited February 16, 2005).]

[This message has been edited by graynod (edited February 17, 2005).]

CPUFreak91

Member

Posts: 2337
From:
Registered: 02-01-2005
there is a few .chm files on python. Search google for Learning Python.chm and Python in a Nutshell. I got em both and I think I might be progressing

BTW--graynod what OS do you use?

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Love, Life and Linux

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
One lappy has Windows XP Home Edition, the other Mandrake 10.1. Please don't fuss Mandrake-haters!!! I had Fedora Core 3 on my old Dell laptop but they didn't seem to get along too well... Actually Mandrake is barely chugging on it either, even when I use Fluxbox. I've tried several other distros but keep coming back to Mandrake, it was my first Linux & got me through the undergrad program. It's good if you're too lazy to really do a lot of hacking I think. However in my newly found idle time as a job-seeker I'm getting into these hackerly pursuits & might rethink things.

Oh, by the way, if you're stuck (hah, that was mean) with Windows, you might wanna try the MinGW/MSYS combo to get the GNU programming goodies working under Windows. I haven't tried Cygwin to any serious degree, I used MinGW almost exclusively for C/C++, SDL, OpenGL, and Java in grad school. I reccommend also getting gvim and learning it, I'm sure the emacs fans out there will object!

Yet more links:
http://www.mingw.org/
http://www.vim.org/

May God bless you on your journey.

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

D-SIPL

Moderator

Posts: 1345
From: Maesteg, Wales
Registered: 07-21-2001
If your feeling really hacky and want a good distro go for Gentoo.

--D-SIPL

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"One World. One Web. One Program." -Microsoft promotional advertisement
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!" -Adolf Hitler

CPUFreak91

Member

Posts: 2337
From:
Registered: 02-01-2005
what would you hack?

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There are two ways of constructing a software design: one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies; the other is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.

--C. A. R. Hoare
[B][/B]

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
Every interesting problem I could get my hands on! Please don't confuse this conversation with 'cracking', we're talking about coding and thinking and problem-solving almost for the pure joy of it, while maintaining a high respect for others. Right now I'm interested in learning how to make my systems do stupid work faster-better-stronger, but later of course I want to delve into more useful applications, play with graphics in different languages, etc. Find out what can be done easier and more elegantly in one language as opposed to others; for instance, if Lisp is indeed a "programmable programming language" is there a correlation there between Lisp and programmable shaders? I wanna know.

From the reading I've done so far in this forum, I don't think I'm alone in my desire to tinker around. It's really great and inspiring to see others enjoying coding and learning, and using the gifts the good Lord gave us.

May God continue to bless us and guide us in all our jouneys.

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
This is a note to myself as much as anyone else. To get clisp working like I wanted under Windows & MinGW, add this to MinGW's .../etc/profile:

alias lisp="c:/clisp-2.33.1/full/lisp.exe -M c:/clisp-2.33.1/full/lispinit.mem"

Now it works like a charm, I can call clisp in a terminal whatever folder I'm in. Could just use DOS-prompt of course but I don't like it. Could just use TightVNC but I don't wanna have to drag both laptops everywhere. I'm using gvim as my editor. This is the way I do about all my programming, vi editor in one window working on the code, prompt in another trying to run it.

May God continue to bless and keep us all.

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies

graynod

Member

Posts: 17
From: richmond, VA, USA
Registered: 09-28-2004
Here's a link for an interactive Web-based tutorial on Lisp, in case anyone's interested:
http://apsymac33.uni-trier.de:8080/Lisp-Course

Take it easy, may God bless your pursuit of knowledge!

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graynod -> "my head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free" -- the Pixies