I am at a high-beginner/low-intermediate level in Python, and one thing that drives me nuts is how poorly I am able to read the Python official documentation and grok how to use the described code.
What's the secret? Are there any guides/videos/books that can help my understand how to approach reading it? Or, is it just one of those things that I need to just keep coming back to while coding, and eventually I will get the hang of it?
Honestly I still often look up alternate documentation, searching "how do I do x?" instead of reading the actual documentation. I think the official documentation tends to be very technical about everything you need to know about the modules, etc. But if you're trying to get one particular thing done in a hurry, finding something someone else has already done and copying it as much easier.
That said, I do believe the official documentation gets better with age/the more you come back to it.
If you are looking for books, check out:
Intermediate:
- Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python — Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques, OOP, Practice Projects
- Pydon'ts — Write elegant Python code, make the best use of the core Python features
- Python Distilled — this pragmatic guide provides a concise narrative related to fundamental programming topics such as data abstraction, control flow, program structure, functions, objects, and modules
Advanced:
- Fluent Python — takes you through Python’s core language features and libraries, and shows you how to make your code shorter, faster, and more readable at the same time
- Serious Python — deployment, scalability, testing, and more
- Practices of the Python Pro — learn to design professional-level, clean, easily maintainable software at scale, includes examples for software development best practices
- Intuitive Python — productive development for projects that last
Python Distilled was a godsend while I was going through CS50P.
I just ordered a stack from your post below. God bless expense deductions 🤓
I hate the official python documentation. I often find what I'm looking for much quicker just by asking ChatGPT. You can even ask it to pretend it's William Shatner while explaining how to use a given function. So that's fun.