Python for Informatics: Exploring Information: Exploring Information

by Charles Severance

This book is designed to introduce students to programming and computational thinking through the lens of exploring data. You can think of Python as your tool to solve problems that are far beyond the capability of a spreadsheet. It is an easy-to-use and easy-to learn programming language that is freely available on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. There are free downloadable copies of this book in various electronic formats and a self-paced free online course where you can explore the course materials. All the supporting materials for the book are available under open and remixable licenses. This book is designed to teach people to program even if they have no prior experience.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Technology, Science, Textbooks

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Charles is a Clinical Associate Professor and teaches in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He also works with the IMS Global Learning Consortium promoting and developing standards for teaching and learning technology. He also works for Longsight as Sakai Chief Strategist. Previously he was the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation and the Chief Architect of the Sakai Project.

Charles teaches two popular MOOCs to students worldwide on the Coursera platform: Internet History, Technology, and Security and Programming for Everybody and is a long-time advocate of open educational resources to empower teachers.

Charles is the editor of the Computing Conversations column in IEEE Computer magazine that features a monthly article and video interview of a computing pioneer. Charles is the author of the book, "Sakai: Building an Open Source Community" that describes the early days of the open source Sakai project. Charles is also the author of the book, "Using Google App Engine" from O'Reilly and Associates and the book "Python for Informatics: Exploring Information". He also wrote the O'Reilly book titled, "High Performance Computing". Charles has a background in standards including serving as the vice-chair for the IEEE Posix P1003 standards effort and edited the Standards Column in IEEE Computer Magazine from 1995-1999.

Charles is active in media as a hobby, he has co-hosted several television shows including "Nothin but Net" produced by MediaOne and a nationally televised program about the Internet called "Internet:TCI". Charles appeared for over 10 years as an expert on Internet and Technology as a co-host of a live call-in radio program on the local Public Radio affiliate (www.wkar.org).

Chuck's hobbies include off-road motorcycle riding, karaoke and playing hockey.

Charles has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Michigan State University.

Reviews

[Rose Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate to say this, but I wasn't as imprsesed with this book as I thought I should have been, given its PLACE in the pantheon of programming books.

However, I still list this as a must read for all developers.

[D.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoops! Forgot to review my text from the summer forgetting it's a real book. Shame on me.

I picked this book up for free for my Kindle when I took my first ever coursea class - Programming for Everybody! Dr. Charles Severance taught the class.

The book and the class are very, very close together except that the book is a lot more cohesive in thought and organization. It's presented well for beginners...at first. Once I hit chapter three, everything sort of went like a bullet train and I was pretty lost for a while, which is where the book kind of failed for me. Too much information too quickly. I probably would have done better with a Dummies book as a true beginner. If you're brand new to Python, pick this up because the information in it is SOLID and this text is FREE, but you'll definitely need other supplementation to go with it.

[علی‌رضا میم · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel book for learning Python.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction for the uninitiated. Good logical progression, exercises are well-designed to balance realistic use cases and accessibility for those of us just getting started. I highly recommend Chuck Severance's Coursera course as well.

[Dave Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book in the hopes of getting a gentle introduction to Python. I was especially impressed that there was a Coursera freebie online course that used this as a text book. Apparently there is a five course series that utilizes this book. (However, after reading the fine print, only the first course in the Coursera quintet is free!  Major buzzkill!) This was my very first Python book.

If you have ZERO experience in programming, this is a good book. I have taken several computer language courses (mostly classroom but also online) during my college days and over my career. As a result, I skimmed through a lot of the first pages of this book. Dr. Severance is a pretty good teacher. The table of contents has a wide variety of subjects that highlight the spectrum of Python capabilities. After about chapter 7-ish, the content was starting to get overwhelming. The online instruction would’ve helped tremendously (I didn’t sign up for successive courses.) In the last third of the book, the content was getting overwhelming. At this point, I was hanging around so that I could get a feel for what is possible through Python. Most of these chapters introduced topics (e.g. web scraping, Twitter API’s, email handling, automation, etc.) that are covered in depth using thick, expensive, technical books.

Honestly, I am tempted to sign up for the courses taught by Dr. Severance. My hesitation has to do with $ and the fact that I need a narrower expertise of Python for my job. At FREE, this book is an exceptional value that surveys the many capabilities of this versatile language. My major knock is that the content is very dependent on the course. 3.5/5 stars.

[Clinton Sites · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes a great introduction to various Python capabilities starting from the most basic (think "Hello World!") to Google geospatial mapping.

I had taken the associated course in Coursera but didn't realize it for a couple of chapters - I just thought it was odd that I recognized so much.

A good introduction that doesn't get one bogged down in trivialities of the language and doesn't put one off by introducing complex concepts too quickly while still giving great value for time spent.
I put so many bookmarks and highlights in my copy I'll keep using it as a reference for a long time coming.

[Cheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book in a free online class through Coursera. The first several chapters were helpful, but overall I think it might be better for people with greater familiarity with other programming languages or with computer science in general. Occasionally terms are used a few chapters before they are explained (e.g., 'tuples'), and often several steps are explained but only one advanced example is given -- crucial details for the novice programmer are lacking. There are a few exercises, but it would be much more helpful with many more exercises (with answers in the book) throughout.

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can recommend this free book if you want to learn how to program (with python). It is a good book, but what made me give this book 4 instead of 3 stars is that the lectures based on this book (slides, podcasts, and videos) are also freely available for download at PythonLearn

[Shahab · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the simplest and amazing initiative books on programming with working exercices and useful resources totally seekable on the author's website. It's highly recommended to data scientists, application developers, statisticians and others who are seeking for an easy book to read and master fast...

[Ch Sajjad]

A very well written book. Simple and to the point. Python made easy

[James Dillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good initial overview of Python basics, with a noticeable bend towards programming for basic data analysis. I would recommend this book for the non-programmer, looking to get their feet wet in Python. If your end-goal is to learn Python for it's powerful abilities in data processing, then this is definitely a practical book.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful book to learn the basics of Python from. Big drawback is that it is based on Python 2 and a lot has changed in Python 3, so various examples just don't work or work differently on current versions.

[Jonathan Jeckell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a great job of introducing topics in an order that builds nicely and is clear and concise enough to learn quickly. It hits a sweet spot of giving enough information for beginners to understand without being cumbersome, and doesn't gloss over things that are usually assumed by experts writing these kinds of books that leave novices mystified.

Caveat: I read this in conjunction with classes on Coursera taught by the author that mirrored the book outline, so I may be giving the book alone more credit than due.

[Mohammed Saad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome and simple it was great to start with learning programming and even to play with data i will recommend it

[ZdenekB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and brief introduction to Python. Great in combination with Dr. Chuck's course on Coursera

[Senaps · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was really awesome book, teaches you so fast and you are ready to go after this book.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is based on Python 2.7.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free download pdf available: https://www.py4e.com/book

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book and goes well with the class (Python For Everybody specialization) on Coursera. The book matched the class well, but it would have been nicer if it covered classes/objects more and in general gave more technical detail in the language. It's so geared toward people with no programming experience that it skips a lot of the technical detail.

The books is free from www.pythonlearn.com (author's website) in many ebook formats. The kindle format I read wasn't a great format for the book with code samples that went across pages. The PDF is better to be able to read the code better.

[Ian Thwaites · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not helpful if you are targeting Python 3.x

Probably my fault, but I had thought I could use this book to learn Python 3.x. However I quickly learned that pretty much nothing in the first chapter would get passed the interpreter; the print statement has been replaced by the print() function, the raw_input() function has been replaced by a revamped input() function, etc.
Probably a great book for learning Python 2.7, but not for me.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I worked through this in conjunction with the Coursera classes. It's a very good resource but towards the end it feels a little rushed. The first three quarters of the book have several programming exercises to be completed. The last quarter focuses on making small changes to pre built code and isn't overly helpful for understanding.

[Peter Szabo · Rating 4 out of 5]

For beginners only

A useful book for those who just started learning programing and chose Python as a first language to learn. It teaches the basic concepts of programming nothing more but nothing less either. It's easy to understand. If you just started consider to read the new edition instead which is revised for Python 3.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of the language and an excellent companion to the Coursera course and YouTube series. If you want a good grounding in Python and are starting from scratch this is a great place to start.

[Rui · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I finished a Coursera course called Programming for Everybody(Pyhton). A very consise book telling pretty much every aspect that Python can be applied to. It's a good start if you don't have any programming background before.

[Maged M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing simple words to begin learning python.

[Kamal Sharif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for beginners. The book is concise but precise. If you want to learn Python basics, this is the right book for you.

[Christina Pikas]

Very readable.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very approachable text with excellent examples and sensible explanations, unlike many others which omit essential conceptual frameworks or assume too much prior knowledge on the student's part.

[Masoom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and useful tips for budding programmers,

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good reference book for Python newbies...