Learn Python from scratch with this free book

Most of the content on the Internet about the Python programming language is in English; this is nothing new, just take a walk through your favorite bookstore and ask for books available in both languages. The material on Python in English, besides being abundant, is also quite good and is much more updated than its counterpart in Spanish. However, there are a couple of excellent books to learn Python in Spanish and one or two free ones, today I will write about one of them.

An immersion in the Python programming language

The name of the book in Spanish is Inmersión en Python 3, a translation made by José Miguel González Aguilera , of the popular book Dive into Python 3 written by Mark Pilgrim.

The language of the book is quite simple, the exercises are well explained and the translation is superb; quite faithful to the original source. The code examples are very well taken care of and even some function and variable names are translated, to make the code more readable for those who do not speak English. The translation errors are minimal, practically insignificant and pale before the great translation work done by Mr. José Miguel González.

What topics are covered in the book?

This book is an introduction to language, designed to explain language and its nuances from the ground up. The first chapters deal with the installation of the language in the main operating systems, as well as its syntax. After a couple of chapters, the author develops the topic of Python’s native data handling; Booleans, numbers, lists, tuples, sets, dictionaries, as well as its most common methods. At the end of the brief introduction to the language, the author gives us a walk through more advanced concepts such as:

• Explanation of how Python transforms bytes into text strings.
• Efficiency of algorithms at an entry level
• Generators
• Iterators
• Closures
• Regular expressions
• xml handling
• http requests

The above topics are discussed while searching for a solution to a problem. For example: regular expressions are explained by trying to create a function that transforms Roman numerals into Arabic numerals and vice versa, iterators are applied in order to create a small application that transforms words into plural (following the grammatical rules of the English language, of course). By treating the topics as small projects, the author raises questions that a programmer may face, such as the dilemma between prioritizing the speed of the code or the memory used by the program. At the end of each chapter the author recommends additional material to deepen the concepts discussed throughout the chapter.

Where do I download or buy it?

Python 3 Immersion is one of the best materials you can find on the internet about Python and, if that’s not enough, it is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 license, which makes it freely available to the general public. I recommend you to download it directly from the translator’s github account Or you can also buy it in its English version at your favorite bookstore.

Recommended prerequisite knowledge: HTML and XML Recommended to read: 8/10 Languages: English, Spanish

If you want to read about another excellent one to learn about Python visit my post that talks about Beginning Python From Novice to Professional .