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Hz so good
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Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:03 pm

Something I've come to notice in the last few months, is that certain network devices and SDN implementations pretty much require programming abilities. TCL, Python, and Perl seem to be the big ones to learn, at the moment. Any recommended books or sites I should start reading? I suck at programming, and really need to start from scratch.
 
DancinJack
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:11 pm

I don't know Python (most my experience is C++/php), but the concepts covered in this look pretty basic. Maybe give it a shot? FWIW, I don't know anything about codeacademy either. They do however have a decent website, and seem to have okay reviews with "for beginner" stuff in my couple google searches.

http://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python
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Hz so good
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:29 pm

Thanks! Every little bit is gonna help. Arista's EOS used Python for extensibility in the data center field (plus they're cool enough to create a vEOS Qemu image file to play with), I'm trying to wrap my brain around OpenvSwitch (which Pica8 H/W accelerates), and while I'm trying to finish my last CCNP exam, I've noticed Rene at GNS3 vault using tcl (or tlc. Having a brain fart), which will come in handy.
 
CampinCarl
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 8:21 pm

Hz so good wrote:
Thanks! Every little bit is gonna help. Arista's EOS used Python for extensibility in the data center field (plus they're cool enough to create a vEOS Qemu image file to play with), I'm trying to wrap my brain around OpenvSwitch (which Pica8 H/W accelerates), and while I'm trying to finish my last CCNP exam, I've noticed Rene at GNS3 vault using tcl (or tlc. Having a brain fart), which will come in handy.


Also try Learn Python the Hard Way. It comes in book, .pdf, and, conveniently, website form.

I would say "Only learn Perl if you worship the devil" but, you know...
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morphine
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 8:47 pm

CampinCarl wrote:
I would say "Only learn Perl if you worship the devil" but, you know...

Ditto. Perl, the write-only language second only to regular expressions :lol:
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Sun Feb 15, 2015 8:50 pm

Here is a quick list of resources:

A good editor for Python will make your life much easier. I like Komodo Edit for cross-platform editing.

As for Perl, I'm not sure. I find it impenetrable, and I have Python in my toolkit.

I'm not sure about TCL either. It's not something I've encountered.
 
Igor_Kavinski
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Tue May 05, 2015 1:59 am

http://pythonvisually.com/

Starts from the very basics so this might be what you are looking for.
 
chuckula
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Tue May 05, 2015 6:25 am

In addition to the excellent references posted above, I highly recommend O'Reilly's books on Python (there's a whole library): http://shop.oreilly.com/category/browse ... /python.do
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Redocbew
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Tue May 05, 2015 12:22 pm

Yeah I'd focus more on Python these days also. If you really need Perl, I thought the Camel Book from O'Reilly's, and The Big Black Book were pretty good references when I was using them.

http://www.amazon.com/Perl-Black-Book-C ... 1576104656
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Perl- ... 0596000278

And of course, there's also Perldoc.

http://perldoc.perl.org/
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Tue May 05, 2015 1:30 pm

My advice (aside from getting some good reference material, others seem to have covered that) is to pick a project of personal interest to you, and develop it in Python as a learning exercise as you go through the tutorials and reference texts. If you learn a new concept which makes you go "oops, I should've done such-and-such module differently" then go back and rewrite that module using the new concept. By the time you're done you should have basic fluency in the language, and an idea of how to apply the language to real-world problems.
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mmmmmdonuts21
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Re: Best books/sites to learn Python and Perl?

Tue May 05, 2015 2:49 pm

Codeacademy is an excellent resource to teach you step by step instructions and I enjoy it quite thoroughly. I agree with JBI that you need to pick something that interest you to learn. I used a website called https://projecteuler.net/ It has math problems that get increasingly difficult as you go move along, but it will teach you many of the basics of any language you want to solve the problem in.
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