Introduction to Python - looking for a book

[kkffoo]

I saw this book on amazon uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Python-Programm ... 084&sr=8-1

It gets good reviews and is aimed at beginners.
I am considering getting it (or another like it) to take away for holiday reading.

I'm wondering if it might be helpful in getting a feel for the code used in Renpy?

I'm not really sure if Renpy code IS python or is based on Python..so whether it might be more confusing than helpful?

(hope this is right place for this topic)

[Aleema]

What kind of game do you want to make? If you just want to make a visual novel, you don't have to look further than Ren'Py's own documentation. I've found that I can find all of my Python answers online, especially in Python's online documentation. (All free!)

Ren'Py code is not Python. It's its own code language, and it's actually really darn simple ("show [image]", "play music [file]"). But Ren'Py supports the use of Python, if you want to do complicated things.

Programming books are hella expensive, and I don't think it's completely necessary in this case. Especially for beginners, since you don't even know if this is the thing for you. That book isn't going to be terribly relevant to Ren'Py, and you should really have it physically in yours hands to browse through it (like at a book store) to make the decision to buy it.

That said, I'm several years in Ren'Py and I desperately want (to afford) a Python book because I'm ready to learn more complex stuff. But I've gotten this far without any.

[kkffoo]

I am always fighting my urge to overcomplicate

[Camille]

If you're just wanting to code a visual novel in Ren'Py, like Aleema said, you really don't need to learn much Python and especially not from an expensive book. I've learned just about anything I needed about Python through reading their extensive (free!) online tutorial.

[delta-ion]

Perhaps the book "a byte of python" could be of use for you. It is licensed under a "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported" license.
The link is http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Python

[kkffoo]

I'm sure it will be thank you! I'm starting to think maybe printing out the most relevant bits and pieces from different places and stapling them together as a mini book might work.
Where we go on holiay you can only get net access on top of the hills, and I don't get much spare time (or brain space) for tutorial reading at home.