Recommended books for Plone and Python newbie?

[RogueOnTheNet]

Hi there,

I am planning on ordering a couple books--one on Plone specifically and something that would be a good basic intro to Python, and was wondering if anyone here in the Sitepoint community might have some recommendations for a good starting point?

I moved to a rather rural area from the city just over a year ago and no longer have the luxury of running down to Barnes & Noble to thumb through books before buying as I used to. (Seriously, the nearest decent bookstore in nearly an hour's drive away...) I see there are only a handful on Plone, but quite a few on Python, and before I order online, some informed opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I have basic PHP skills, and know my way around quite a few CMS and so forth...but not a programmer by any means. I'm decent with scripting and can pick up stuff fairly quick, and have played around with REBOL, BASIC, VBScript and know enough MySQL to look for mistakes in code...so I don't need an absolute beginner's guide (though I'm not too proud to start out with one), but advanced books might be more than I am ready for just yet.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

Sean

[wbowers]

One of the best Python books out there right now is Dive Into Python by Mark Pilgrim. He'll have you developing Python apps the right way in no time. The book is available free online, and, if you felt so inclined, you could purchase a copy as well. You could also try the Python Tutorial on python.org.

As for Plone, a simple google search returned a couple of good suggestions.

[Chris9902]

Dive Into Python.

I found it a little dry but if you're new to Python that really should be your starting point.

[hillsy]

Martin Aspeli's Plone book is the most up to date. The Definitive Guide to Plone is not too bad for basic stuff though, and freely available. Just take what it says with a grain of salt, as quite a bit has changed architecturally since it was published.

[3ct7]

The Python class I took recommended these free online books as texts:

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matlo...ythonIntro.pdf
http://openbookproject.net//py4fun/

The class web site is still up and has more stuff on it if you want to check it out:
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cse39904/resources.html