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Zed Shaw is teaching two four-week Python classes (online)
- jbarham 16y agoFYI, I'm getting a 404 for the link to the Part B follow-up lesson.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoI think I fixed the bad link; thanks for letting us know.
- patrickaljord 16y agoStill there here http://codelesson.com/view/introduction-to-programming-in-python-part-b http://codelesson.com/view/introduction-to-programming-in-py...
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoNow fixed for real :)
- brianmwang 16y agoThat's not the right URL. Go here instead: http://codelesson.com/courses/view/introduction-to-programming-in-python-part-b http://codelesson.com/courses/view/introduction-to-programmi...
- thesethings 16y agoFull disclosure: I have no professional/ financial affiliation with Codelesson, though I am friends with one of its founders. Posted this since I've seen so much praise for Zed's Python book here on HN.
- zaatar 16y agoZed's python book: http://sheddingbikes.com/LearnPythonTheHardWay.pdf http://sheddingbikes.com/LearnPythonTheHardWay.pdf
- thesethings 16y agoDoh! Thanks. I should have linked to that :D (Everybody, check out this amazing, constantly updated (!) book that Zed wrote.)
- mcn 16y agoThe grandparent comment links version 0.1 of the book, get the current version (0.5 as of now) from the book's website at http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ (I found that out in the process of attempting to report an error in version 0.1 - it's already fixed in 0.5, and 0.5 is 4x longer.)
- zedshaw 16y agoHmmm, I should probably put up a pdf that says "there's a new version" at that URL.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- emzo 16y agoMark Pilgrim's http://diveintopython.org/ http://diveintopython.org/ is a good continuation to this book if you're interested in learning Python. It's also free, and there's a more recent version for Python 3 at http://diveintopython3.org/ http://diveintopython3.org/
- jnoller 16y agoThat's pretty cool; and I didn't know about codelesson - if I ever had the time to put together a decent class, I'd try this out for sure. Grats to Zed.
- sublemonic 16y agoI'd love to take a Mongrel2 class from Zed. Codelesson is new to me - I must explore...
- zedshaw 16y agoWell damn, maybe I'll do one. Hell I'd get together with people in SF or wherever for free and show them how to do stuff. It'd be an awesome bad ass way for me to get feedback on what needs to happen to make Mongrel2 awesome.
- Psyonic 16y agoI'd definitely be interested in attending that.
- babeKnuth 16y agoi second that. not just mongrel2, even ruby, jazz guitar, etc. i think being able to get feedback from someone like zed allows one to QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY get to the meat and heart of ideas and concepts. whereas in my experience with other instructors you're sometimes wondering in the back of your mind whether the person actually knows what they are talking about. it's similar to being able to study directly with a zen master. except in this case it's not zen, it's zed.
- netmau5 16y agoI'd -love- to take a Python course from Zed but this site makes me uneasy about following through. Not enough information and the site simply doesn't look professional enough to be sending in payments of $200+. The 404 on the follow up course is a big red flag too. -- "Find courses you're interested in from our course list. After you've selected a course, we'll send you more information about our Web-based learning system. " I kinda want to know before signing up, selecting, and/or paying what your Web-based learning system is about. From what I can see on the site, there will be some directed readings, evaluated assignments, and a place to do Q&A. Those are nice benefits but I'm looking for a quality teacher to pay that premium. I'd like to know if there is audio/video lectures, what the required texts are, etc. Unfortunately there is no FAQ and the only obvious way to ask is the "Contact Us" link which takes you to a generic feedback page.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoThere is a FAQ, actually: http://codelesson.com/faq http://codelesson.com/faq
- nivertech 16y agoNo audio/video lectures or screencasts? It's unclear from FAQ what's "instructor-led" actually means.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoSorry, I responded to your question in the wrong point in the thread. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724883 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724883
- netmau5 16y agoYou're right and I did see it, so I shouldn't have said there wasn't one. I was looking at the course page and desperately wanting some questions answered so I threw my hands up and said "where's the FAQ!". I would have preferred a bit more info in the Site FAQ, but it definitely did answer a handful of my questions. Anyways, now that you're here, do you guys do video lectures/interaction of any sort? I think that would persuade me to follow through~
- jlmendezbonini 16y agoSomeone knows about a similar site offering (or someone willing to offer through codelesson.com) a good software engineering course? I'll be up for that.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoYou can propose a course here: http://codelesson.com/courses/suggest http://codelesson.com/courses/suggest What topics would you like to see covered in a software engineering course? What kind of person would you like to see teach it?
- mhb 16y agoMaking the first lesson available for free would answer a lot of questions and address a lot of anxieties as well as probably lure in more students.
- zedshaw 16y agoWell, the entire course is technically already online: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ Basically, I'll be setting up the first 26 lessons for class A, then the remaining 26 for class B. The purpose of the course is that you get my time to help you through the book and grade you on your progress. It's actually pretty simple and should be a ton of fun.
- Kaizyn 16y agoThis course is a great idea. Will you do a ruby class next? In saying that, I am mostly joking. However a C class would be pretty sweet, especially since it's hard to learn how to write C correctly, efficiently and securely.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoWe have a Ruby course listed on the site already: http://codelesson.com/courses/view/the-ruby-programming-language http://codelesson.com/courses/view/the-ruby-programming-lang...
- babeKnuth 16y agoi think he was asking if zed would be teaching a course on ruby. if so, what about mongrel too? :)
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoThe book is not the course.
- kmfrk 16y agoLittle can be inferred from the link, but I am 100% sure that Zed makes an awesome teacher for anyone who's considering taking the class. Just hit him up on Twitter or e-mail, and I'm sure he'll oblige.
- praeclarum 16y agoWhat's up with this being an introductory course to Python? Shouldn't the experts be giving expert level instruction? I understand the desire of programmers to start from ground zero, but come on. The internet is full of easy beginner tutorials. Bookstores are full of intermediate materials. But there is a shortage of expert advice from experienced professionals. Let's see some of that!
- jeffreymcmanus 16y agoYou assume every experience professional knows everything. :) There's no shame in taking an introductory course, even if you're a super genius in some other area. One thing that surprised us about our first CodeLesson course is that it was populated by a few startup CEOs, some of whom had coded in college, others who were learning to code for the first time.
- praeclarum 16y agoWhile I agree, in general, with your statements/sentiments, such logic will keep us perpetually in a loop of beginner's mechanics. You advance knowledge and skill by challenging yourself - you don't do it by repeating beginner's materials.
- babeKnuth 16y agoi disagree. i've been coding for quite a while now, and am now just picking up emacs. the only way for me to begin is to start with basic/simple tutorials (e.g. peepcode, emacs starter kit, etc.). for an experienced programmer trying to learn python, i'd imagine zed would be an amazing fit since he could possibly customize/direct his vast knowledge specific to the user. though i agree with the idea that there are very few resources geared toward expert/advanced users. i'm not sure how flexible the course material would be in this case tho.
- njharman 16y agoexpertise is learned through experience. experts are se;f taught over long period. you cant teach some to be an expert
- mkramlich 16y agoI'm really not into taking "courses" online when there's already lots of free non-interactive textual/reference/tutorial content already online, and offline in the form of books. And for a really great interactive resource, there's this thing called the Python REPL. That said, I do think people should do what they love, and try to monetize the doing of what they love, so more power to him in this endeavor.
- jrockway 16y agoSome people need a little kick start to the self-learning process. I've taught classes like this, and it's really amazing how a week of instructor-driven exploration can improve people's programming skills! Sometimes, getting started all seems a little overwhelming. Having someone show you everything and hold your hand can give you the context you need to really understand what's going on. Once you have context and understanding, the rest is easy.
- zedshaw 16y agoSame here, but then people like me and you are rare in the real world. Other folks, for lack of confidence or direction, need someone to point them in in the right way so they get started.
- mkramlich 16y agofair point
- babeKnuth 16y agomany people learn many different ways. once you've attempted to try and teach/show people, you'll hopefully see this first hand. there is no such thing as a single pedagogy that applies to everyone with the same effectiveness. everyone is always at a different level, and people pick things up at different speeds as well. i learned to snowboard in less than 8 hours. yet i've gone off and on with ruby/rails for over a year and still can't get the hang of it with any fluency. different strokes for arnold and willis.
- c00p3r 16y agoI think there is a much better way to invest your time: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/lecture-videos/ http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... Seem like everyone on HN is either a teacher or a prophet nowadays. ^_^
- babeKnuth 16y agoi'm curious as to what sort of pedagogical approach zed will be taking with this course. i know zed's personal preference is to pick up a book and just go thru all the exercises in it (e.g. mickey baker's jazz guitar). will he be doing anything different from traditional student/instructor methods? curious as to what zed's personal take on this is as well.