If you're posting here, presumably you know how to program already. In that case working through the free "Dive into Python" PDF really is the first step you sh

If you're posting here, presumably you know how to program already. In that case working through the free "Dive into Python" PDF really is the first step you should take. After the first seven chapters you should then be able to make do with the online docs (the remaining chapters cover specialized material like HTML parsing, SOAP calls and test based development which are, in my opinion, not the first thing you should be worried about when learning a new language). "Learning Python" and especially "How to think like a computer scientist" are targeted towards people with very little programming experience. If that's you, my vote goes to "How to think like a computer scientist" (ymmv).