Looking for newbies that want to learn Python

[rm]

Any one interested in becoming a Python programmer?  Look here:

http://www.themaemo.com/python-for-newbies/

[Neal ManBear]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,65898.0.html

[rm]

Didn't see that one.  It seems like a nice fun time doing it together like that.  To those involved on that thread, I say stick with it.  Mine is just another resource.  But, I hope it is a good one.  Enjoy! 

[joechimp]

The more knowledge the better. It sounds like both the forum and the site will be beneficial to those wanting to be programmers.

Thanks

[Neptune]

Thanks - I'll check that link out. Python definitely can't be faulted for a shortage of documentation. One of the problems beginners often have is not in finding information, but in just digging through the mountain of information out there. I mentioned 'Dive into Python' as a resource that might be worthwhile for experienced programmers, but I flinch when I see it recommended to neophyte programmers - it "dives in" all right - right into the deep end.

Another resource that may be a little more suitable for budding programmers is:
'Python for Software Design - How to Think Like a Computer Scientist', which, just reading the title, seems like it might be a bit much, but it's really not too bad.
http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/

I have a luxury that the authors of these texts don't have - other members of the group can give me immediate feedback, so that makes my job much easier - and hopefully of benefit in a supplemental, and different way than static references offer.

[rm]

Neptune.  I agree with you completely.  The reason I started to write this tutorial in the first place was because I found the lot of existing tutorials lacking in their approachability by people new to programming.  Just about all of them were either not comprehensive enough, or seemed written by geniuses for geniuses. Let me quote a little excerpt from a tutorial that I think exemplifies this symptom quite eloquently:

"I have to use as-yet-unexplained language features in order to
present examples that do relevant things, because it would be too much
to explain the language features & concepts here.  These features are
explained in later chapters, so for now you can just adopt a very
casual attitude, hey, it works!"

Don't get me wrong, I understand  that this approach probably works for a certain type of people.  But there are a lot of us that find this approach very
difficult to follow.  The approach of my tutorial is to gradually introduce new concepts so that the student can follow along at a logical and pleasant pace.  Yes, it has a disadvantage.  The examples can't be too elaborate.  But, the purpose of tutorial, to teach the language, is better accomplished this way.  If I was teaching a group of people the English language, I would not go about doing so with a George Gordon Byron poem.  Some think that doing so would be a great idea, but I pity the students of such instructors.

By the way, I am looking for help in finishing the last sections of the tutorial. In particular, if you have experience with PyQt or PyGTK your help would be much appreciated.

[CAVT]

Wow, seems to be pretty similar to MatLab/Octave language, at least for the basic operations... however I understand MatLab is precompiled, being the reason why it's slower than Fortran or C++ to make certain calculations. I believe it, since I'm used to MatLab (I'm not a veteran, but have had my battles) and certain processes, specially when you need to put nested "if" and "for" or when a function calls a function, can ralentize the process pretty much... sometimes I can take the time with the chronometer of my cellphone, lol.
Thanks for the info about Python, now I see why it's so popular, I'll see if I give it a try one of these days.