On Dec 30, 2009, at 7:42 AM, Elwin Estle wrote:

I have tried a couple of times to learn Python, but I am an old fogy and keep coming up against a wall whenever I try to get my head around the whole object oriented programming thing (yes, I know, Python can do procedural just fine...but it seems like OOP is a sort of central concept to a lot of what python is capable of..)

Anybody got any good recommendations for books for learning Python?  Especially ones that actually give a clear explanation of the the whole OOP thing in a Python context?  I've found stuff that kind of explains things for other languages, but that doesn't help with understanding things from a Python specific point of view.  I've gotten a Python for Dummies book...but...it seems I am too dumb even for that.

Well, it's not for Python, but I've found that "Thinking in Java" presents a very good overview of OOP and extremely useful. If you're interested in learning more than one language, then it's a good one to add. The older editions are also online for free, so that can help.