Python for Software Design: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Mfragin said
This book fills a niche that few other Python books can fill: an introduction to Python that also gives a strong introduction to computer science and software design.

I have read many Python books aimed at students in Computer Science that are little more than translations of a previous book into Python. Many of those books are full of "non-Pythonic", unintuitive, or erroneous code. This book makes none of those mistakes. In a relatively small package it still manages to give a firm foundation in writing concise and efficient Python programs. Chapters are written around Python's basic data types and quickly show the correct way to use these structures.

The case studies included are excellent and get students involved with graphics early in the book--with help from the Swampy module. Other case studies show how easy it is to use Python to parse text files and write functions for lexicographical analysis. After covering the basic types (including files and modules), Downey moves on to object-oriented programming and wraps up the book with a look at Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming in Python.

This book is well suited to individual study, but I use it in a high school Computer Science course. I find this book to be much better than most textbooks aimed at introductory computer science students. This book compares well with the classic Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science [With CD-ROM] [PYTHON PROGRAMMING].