Learnin Python -- Where To Start?

Where to start ?? : this is the kind of question that is asked by every newbie who wants to get into some field. And it is also the kind of question that is answered by pros again and again. But the problem I am facing right now has raised simply because the question is answered in too many ways. And for a newbie, this is confusing. By trying to find the right way to start through google, I got into more confusion.Before I write about why I am confused, I would like to write a little about why I want to learn python. Basically what I want is to be able to understand how computer softwares work and how they are made. I might want to create one or two of my own but my field (my real field of work, which is medical sciences) doesn't allow me to spend too much time on creating computer programs. So no matter how I like it, I might never get a chance to create complex computer programs. But I really want to be able to understand how softwares are made and I have some plans of making one or two softwares related to medical field.I knew from the beginning the C / C++ is a powerful language and that most computer programs are written in this. I also knew about Java but for some obscure reason I have more love for C++ (I simple don't know why). So I did some research online trying to find out where to start learning C++. To my surprise, I came to know that C++ is too complex to be learned as a first language and most people recommend that some simpler language be learned prior to going deep into the dark dungeon of C++.Many people have mentioned Python as a good starting language. Before this research I didn't even knew python existed so I did some quick research on python. My research taught me that not only python is much simpler, it is also very powerful and vast. Plus it is also related to web applications (which, by the way, is my second field of work...) So now I definitely want to learn python. One reason is that maybe it would be sufficient for my and I might not even need to learn c++, (though I would love to be a master of C++)Now why I am confused ??... I am confused because some people are telling me that python is a waste of time while others tell me that it is good to learn but it is not related to C++ and you would need to take a fresh start with C++. Secondly, different people have mentioned different resources to learn python from. Some have stated that online tutorials are the best. Some have named a few books and mentioned that beginners should start from these....What I need is to know... First of all that is learning python worth it..... and secondly where should I start from ??? Any good book, tutorial, website etc... But I need to learn it quickly so it would be nice if the resource keeps this in mind.....

I hate python. It's a separate language, with it's own conventions. I would not start with this, except if you are in a company who uses it. Learning C language or even php with mysql would be a better investment for future.Of course, this is my own experience, other people with a different experience could have a different opinion.

python as yordan mention is a bit different, it uses new-line and indentation for end of lines which initially (if you have done php/c/java where ";" is used for end of lines) can be a bit of a pain to get use to but once you get the hang of it (shouldn't take long really) you will find it is a very good language in its own way hehei have done a bit of python (intro level) and i find that it has a clean laid out syntax due to it's indentation restrictiveness

I hate python. It's a separate language, with it's own conventions. I would not start with this, except if you are in a company who uses it. Learning C language or even php with mysql would be a better investment for future.Of course, this is my own experience, other people with a different experience could have a different opinion.

I am absolutely not in a company that uses python. I am a self taught web developer and just want to get into mainstream programming... or at least know how things work on software development side.

I have reasonable knowledge of PHP and mySQL. I learnt them about a year back and unfortunately for me, I haven't had the time to develop my skill on these languages because of my medical studies. But I have the basics clear and I can start working with them with a little revision of basic things.

That being said, if I take your advice and throw away the idea of investing my time into python and go for C... where should I start then? What is a good resource for me to start getting my hands dirty with C... keeping in mind my time investment limitations.

You learned medical science. Your university probably has computer science teachers too. You could probably pick a copy of the C language courses and start reading them, trying to do the exercices, and also choose a subject which you would like to do by yourself, and start writing your own program.

I had a cousin who completed 5 years into his medicine study then decided to do programming and now he works as a software engineer (he could've easily finished off his med - 2 years of practical and become a doctor) but he said his interests in computers and programming overturns his drive and motivation towards medicine which just faded away...

You learned medical science. Your university probably has computer science teachers too. You could probably pick a copy of the C language courses and start reading them, trying to do the exercices, and also choose a subject which you would like to do by yourself, and start writing your own program.

I am in the process of becoming a doctor (I am not one yet). It is a 5 years program and I have completed 3 years... so 2 still to go. Unfortunately for me, medical schools in my country (and possible most other countries) don't have classes for other subjects. They are strictly MEDICAL schools. They don't teach anything else. So if someone (like me) wants to do something extra, he is on his own.

I have taught myself web development, php, css, html etc in the past and I am sure I can teach myself C as well. I just want to make sure that I follow the right path so that my already limited time is not wasted on something useless.

So I will have to search a good book myself and learn from it myself. I can do the learning quite quickly but I need to make sure that the book I am using is worth the time spent on it. SO that is why I seek advice from experts and I hope you (@yordan) would have some experience with the learning process of C. So can you mention a good book that fits my needs so that I can start learning C right away.

I had a cousin who completed 5 years into his medicine study then decided to do programming and now he works as a software engineer (he could've easily finished off his med - 2 years of practical and become a doctor) but he said his interests in computers and programming overturns his drive and motivation towards medicine which just faded away...

Well I don't think I can do something similar to your cousin @manuleka. I do have a huge passion for computers and programming stuff but I also have huge respect for my medical profession. It is extremely extremely difficult to get admission in a Govt. medical school in my country where all the expenses are provided by the Govt. (and you have to acknowledge that medical education is expensive). So I won't leave this profession but I would also like to be a good programmer because I feel that in this way I can create stuff that could help the whole medical community. And that is my main goal.

Ok so I have done some more research into the subject and I have made the final decision that I am going to take python to a side (for the time being) and instead I would go for C as the first step towards C++. (Thanks @yordan for planting this idea into my mind....=== INCEPTION Lol ). Actually I made the decision yesterday. I also did some research on where to start learning C. (Though @yordan didn't help me on this ..... ) I did find some useful resources through google. And after my research I have decided to go for the book called "C programming - A modern approach - 2nd edition".

Actually most people mentioned K&R C programming language 2nd edition as the best book for learning C (as it is written by the creators of the language) but many people have also mentioned that it is not very good for beginners. So I looked for something that is beginner friendly and I decided to go for "C Programming a modern approach".. That was all yesterday...

Today I was fortunate enough to grab a copy of the book and actually I was so eager that I read the first chapter of it as well. It was nice and easy to understand and I am assuming that my decision to go for the book was right.

I ran into some problems setting up the environment and getting my first program to run but I will discuss them in a separate thread. I hope that moderators will allow me to post a link to that thread here so that beginners like me can get some help....

Follow this link :
http://forums.xisto.com/topic/51991-writing-my-first-c-program/
'>http://forums.xisto.com/topic/51991-writing-my-first-c-program/

awesome... great to know you have decided on a language to start on... i think once you grab hold of programming concepts and fundamentals, it won't be that difficult to add other languages to your list

Well during the process of learning HTML, CSS and PHP, I should have grabbed some basic concepts of programming. But I do believe that concepts in C (and C++) would be much vast than the web-based languages I have learned.Biggest problem with me is finding enough amount of time to spend on learning the language.. I am currently taken by so many things that it kind of gets hard some time...By the way, if I ask... how long should an average person take to learn a language like C....

By the way, if I ask... how long should an average person take to learn a language like C....

For basic things, this will need the same time that you needed for learning php.

By the time I was learning PHP, I had only the knowledge of HTML and CSS. I had done some GW-Basic back at school but that was quite a long time ago.. So practically I was new at programming. And because of this, it took me quite long to understand the concept of programming.Now that I do know some of the basic concepts, shouldn't it be helping me in terms of reducing the amount of time required to get things straight with C.?

By the time I was learning PHP, I had only the knowledge of HTML and CSS. I had done some GW-Basic back at school but that was quite a long time ago.. So practically I was new at programming. And because of this, it took me quite long to understand the concept of programming.
Now that I do know some of the basic concepts, shouldn't it be helping me in terms of reducing the amount of time required to get things straight with C.?

should be... the real challenge comes when you get deeper in to the language core structures... especially when you get to classes and objects (there is an OO implementation of PHP as well)

I do have some previous experience with OO programming in PHP but I have to admit that I am not good at it at all. I skipped most of it while I had the chance to learn it and I assume I will have to pay the price in terms of amount of time consumed when the OOP comes in C...Let's see what happens.

i don't think C is Object Oriented but definitely C++