If you're familiar with other programming languages it's easy enough to learn. I think I got a copy of O'Reilly's Learning Python when I first started out, read the first few chapters, and just used the rest for reference. If I remember correctly it was a pretty decent book.

If you're looking for videos, Google's Code University has some lectures: http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/index.html

Haven't you started SecurityTube's Python Scripting Expert? Your post has concerned me a little as I want to learn Python and was considering this course.

SecurityTube's site says "Module 1 of the course is meant for students who have very little or no programming experience before. We go really slowly on the basics of the language so you can pick up the essential programming skills before venturing to the more difficult modules".

Is this a fair assessment in your opinion or would I be better off learning some Python from some of the recommendations in this thread before starting it?

I haven't completed it yet, but the Security Tube course has been pretty solid so far.

If you're just getting started, you might want to run through these resources quickly first:
http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/
http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

However, if you can follow along with everything in the videos, I don't really see a need to break away from them and go through another resource.

www.udacity.com has a lot of Python-based programming courses that help you apply your knowledge in some interesting scenarios.

Thanks for the responses.


In that case then I'll probably just go straight for the SPSE and break out into those resources if required.

I've started the MIT series on Python as well. I took Pascal about 25 years ago, and knew some BASIC before that.... so starting from scratch is kinda necessary for me. Thanks for the excellent link.

Yeah thanks for the links lots good resources about to learn python.