Because I don't think I can edit posts yet, this blog post of the author's is very useful in gauging where the books assume their readers are at:

https://zedshaw.com/2015/06/16/early-vs-beginning-coders/

Quotes:

> When I was working on Learn Python The Hard Way I was frustrated by how often I’d have to explain that the book is for a total beginner.

[snip]

> What I propose is we have beginning coders and early coders. I got this idea from a painting teacher who kept referring to students who had never painted as “beginners”, but those who had painted for about one class as “early”. The reasoning is that you need a way to differentiate people who don’t know a damn thing vs. people who know the basics but just simply suck at them. Teaching a beginner is very different from teaching someone who’s already been doing it for a bit and just needs more training.

> For example, a beginning coder doesn’t know how to type the | (pipe) character. They don’t even know it’s called a “pipe”. I’m not joking about this. Professionals actually don’t believe me when I tell them this, but it’s true. Beginners have zero experience so simple things like making a text file, opening terminal, and even the idea that you can type words at a computer and it will do stuff, are simply unknown to them. To teach a beginner effectively requires this level of information slowly fed to them in reasonable chunks.

It's for people learning how to program for the very first time, to the point they need to be told to enter code into a text editor as opposed to, say, Microsoft Word. Or whatever Microsoft is calling its Word Processing Software Tool Universe For Non-Programmers this week.

(Yes, it might well be possible to coerce Microsoft Word into emitting plain text. The book does not assume its readers know that.)

From what I recall, the author is very opinionated in that he does things one way and expects readers to follow along exactly. The readership is at a level where this is a good thing: If you introduce options, people who know absolutely nothing get paralyzed by them, because they have no basis for making those kinds of decisions yet. It would be better if they flipped a coin, most likely, but most people seem reluctant to do that, because utter beginners are irrationally afraid of damaging things.

So the author has made all the decisions for them, and can get them to the point where they know enough to disagree.

I learned python 2 by reading an earlier version of the book. I already knew how to program in general (20+ years experience), and the book was a little basic. Still, as an intro to a language (I was new to python entirely) it was worthwhile. I also like the author's writing style.

I was going to say that they're free (or pay what you want), but that's apparently no longer the case (or won't be as of tomorrow). I support the author in this decision, but I guess you have 12 hours to skim the book and see if it's worthwhile and then buy it if you like what you see.

You will not gain anything from it.

It's for people who can't code

The Python Language Reference is pretty good if you're already experienced: https://docs.python.org/3.6/reference/index.html

In your case I would recommend Effective Python and/or Fluent Python if you haven't read those.

Fluent Python is a great book. I found Luciano Ramalho's writing style very easy to follow and his knowledge of Python is extensive.

Looks like Effective Python should be next on my reading list!