A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering, 6)

This is an excellent book. Unfortunately it is based on Python 2.7. There won't be a Python 3 version. The reason is the author died of cancer.

This book is occasionally a bit over my head because of my lack of background. I can work out what it means. Sequence of presentation provides enough background while getting to main points quickly.

Thank you!

Thanks. Great seller.

If you want to learn scientific computing, I suggest finding a different book. The author has a habit of placing key concepts in the middle of paragraphs in the middle of long sections of text. While plenty of examples are included, it is sometimes unclear as to what concepts the examples are trying to convey. Clarity of concepts is lacking. Many times, I have read parts of this book and have become more confused. For instance, he spends two chapters on the concept of a class in Python, yet never clearly conveys what it is. I read a different book, and the concept is conveyed clearly and simply in one sentence. What I find more infuriating is that the author posts his lecture notes on the internet, and he clearly conveys the concept in his notes.The professor teaching the class I use this book for assigns a second book because previous classes have had issues with previous editions of this book. It is apparent to me that the problems with the obtuseness and inability to clearly explain concepts has not been solved with this edition. If it wasn't for that second book, I would be clueless.

This book is for Python 2.7. If you're working on learning in the Python 3 environment, you will spend the majority of your time trying to reconcile Python version errors in the provided examples. The "companion" book for this "Programming for Computations- Python 2nd Edition", by the same main author, is a better buy, as it is updated to Python 3.6. You can then focus on the computing, not retranslating 2.7 to 3.6+.