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I've used Python sparingly in the past for tooling and helper apps and am now picking it up in a more serious way as I'm working on a Flask API app. I've been r

I've used Python sparingly in the past for tooling and helper apps and am now picking it up in a more serious way as I'm working on a Flask API app. I've been reading lots of instructional materials and the one thing that I find lacking across the board is coverage of the toolchain and it's edge cases. For starters, Macs only come with Python 2.X, tell me about installing 3.X and some of the walls I might run into in the process. Having used other package managers, pip is easy to pick up but you might get stuck if you forget you need to use pip3 instead. virtualenv is something that could use a more thorough explanation in almost everything I've read, but I'm also now seeing everyone shift to using pipenv and sorting this out yourself is not easy to newcomers (I haven't seen a text yet that discusses it other than packages using it in their install copy and paste and the pipenv site itself). The small things that seem obvious to seasoned devs are really what I'm looking for, especially in an accelerated course. This applies almost equally to most language reference material I've come across but I'm asking politely, please spend more time on the toolchain.

jventura 9y ago
> This applies almost equally to most language reference material I've come across but I'm asking politely, please spend more time on the toolchain. I have a chapter about the python installation in this book but in the documents I usually give to my students I also explain how to use pip and virtualenv. I may add something about the basic tooling, at least enough so that people can get up to speed with python. Edit: removed "spent an entire chapter on the python installation".
- natch 9y ago
  That’s nice but the “entire chapter” you mention is three pages, divided into three platforms, so less than a page per platform including screenshots, which means really about one or two short paragraphs per platform. I really don’t want to take away from what you’ve done, but to say there is an “entire” chapter is not really getting the point of the comment you replied to. Installation may indeed be coverable in so few words, but I think what is missing is coverage of what it takes to go back and forth between different versions (using ‘python’ versus ‘python3’ on the command line doesn’t begin to cover it), although personally I will be happy when we no longer have to do that. I am glad to see you are basing things on Python 3.
  - jventura 9y ago
    Oh, you're right, I've edited my answer because "entire chapter" seems a very big thing considering the size of the document, and it probably makes me be seen as quite arrogant. To my defense, I'm not a native English speaker and it's 2:30 am here, so the quality of my answers are not the best at this moment.. :)
scheveningen 9y ago
Have you tried 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python'? It strives to be exactly this -- a guide on installation, configuration, and usage of the Python runtime and development toolchain. http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/ http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/
- chrsstrm 9y ago
  Thanks. I feel like I have read sections of this guide but going back and seeing some of the now relevant section titles, there appears to be some good info in here I could use. I hope I didn't skip over some of these when I was looking for relevant material.

jventura 9y ago

> This applies almost equally to most language reference material I've come across but I'm asking politely, please spend more time on the toolchain. I have a chapter about the python installation in this book but in the documents I usually give to my students I also explain how to use pip and virtualenv. I may add something about the basic tooling, at least enough so that people can get up to speed with python. Edit: removed "spent an entire chapter on the python installation".

natch 9y ago
That’s nice but the “entire chapter” you mention is three pages, divided into three platforms, so less than a page per platform including screenshots, which means really about one or two short paragraphs per platform. I really don’t want to take away from what you’ve done, but to say there is an “entire” chapter is not really getting the point of the comment you replied to. Installation may indeed be coverable in so few words, but I think what is missing is coverage of what it takes to go back and forth between different versions (using ‘python’ versus ‘python3’ on the command line doesn’t begin to cover it), although personally I will be happy when we no longer have to do that. I am glad to see you are basing things on Python 3.
- jventura 9y ago
  Oh, you're right, I've edited my answer because "entire chapter" seems a very big thing considering the size of the document, and it probably makes me be seen as quite arrogant. To my defense, I'm not a native English speaker and it's 2:30 am here, so the quality of my answers are not the best at this moment.. :)

scheveningen 9y ago

Have you tried 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python'? It strives to be exactly this -- a guide on installation, configuration, and usage of the Python runtime and development toolchain. http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/ http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/

chrsstrm 9y ago
Thanks. I feel like I have read sections of this guide but going back and seeing some of the now relevant section titles, there appears to be some good info in here I could use. I hope I didn't skip over some of these when I was looking for relevant material.