Favorite Resources

Inductive Automation prides itself on building software centered around open and accessible technologies. Of course, this means that in order to be as effective as possible it is necessary to have a good understanding of these technologies. Outside resources such as books and websites can be invaluable.

This thread is dedicated to sharing your favorite and most useful resource. To get things started, here are some books that are permanent fixtures on the desks here at Inductive Automation:

Getting Started

Learning Python, 3rd Edition
Learning SQL
And from the “love or hate” category… (to be clear: we’ve never used this one, but we’ve had various people recommend it for beginners)
Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL – A Learner’s Guide

Quick Reference

Python Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O’Reilly))
SQL Pocket Guide (Pocket Reference (O’Reilly))

Websites

SQLZoo.net - awesome resource for comparing how things are done in different database systems.

I’ll add the official Python 2.1 docs to the list, available here:

python.org/doc/2.1/

In particular, the Tutorial and Library Reference sections.

I think I’ve got every Python book in publication, and by far I got the most out of “Core Python”. The way that classes and functions were explained really cleared up everything: Core Python If all I had was fifty bucks in my pocket, this would be the book I’d get.

Another Python book that I could recommend to beginners is “Python Power”. It doesn’t get the greatest of reviews, but for my money it made a lot of sense out of things like lists and strings when I was first starting out: Python Power

I have the following in my library:

“Learning Python” by Lutz & Ascher
great for core Python

“Jython Essentials” by Pedroni & Rappin
good for basics of Jython with Java

“Python Cookbook” by Martelli & Ascher
good for hints on how to attack a problem

“Python Programming with the Java Class Libraries” by Hightower
good for using Swing with Jython

I have a set of various cheat sheets plastered on the wall…

http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/

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+1 for those addedbytes cheat-sheets, those things are great. Thanks for the tip!

I belong to a Jython forum, and someone there posted about an online Python programming course at MIT. It focuses on how Python could be used in statistical analysis, among other things.

It is free, and the videos and pdf lecture notes can be downloaded. I watched a few, and some of the material is pretty dry (it’s MIT, after all) but I look forward to seeing what they are doing in the advanced lessons.

Here you go: MIT

www.Datacamp.com
Alot of lessons about python for data science and machine learning .

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Adding cross-link. Sorry for the necro post.