Python Version For A Newbie

I am extremely new to python, having started to learn it less than a month ago, but experienced with some other programming languages (primarily C# and SQL). But now that Python 3

Solution 1:

Go with 2.6 since that's what most libraries(pygame, wxpython, django, etc) target.

The differences in 3.0 aren't that huge, so transitioning to it later shouldn't be much of a problem.

Solution 2:

Since they have incompatibilities, I suggest you start going for Python 3.0 which is more useful in the future anyway. It's a better language. You can see the precise differences in What's new page on its Web site.

Solution 3:

I would say begin with 2.6 since the vast, vast majority of documentation regarding Python will be applicable to 2.6 as well most open source projects you may want to contribute to will be in 2.6 for awhile. Then, once you have a good foundation in 2.6, you can learn 3.0. That way you can kind of appreciate how the language has evolved and where the "aesthetic" of the code comes from.

Solution 4:

Start with 2.6, and when you get a bit more proficient with the language (few thousands of lines of code written), transitioning to 3.0 will be easy and natural. While learning I suggest you ignore classic classes, and pay special attention to iterators, generators, and list comprehension.

Solution 5:

It depends on what you are willing to do.

Python 3.0 is the newer release, and with time should become the standard. However, it has almost no libraries or frameworks available, and even the tools are not so up to date (e.g. the Eclipse plug-in for Python is still in the migration phase).

On the other hand, there are no huge differences, and once you learn one, moving to the other is quite easy.

So, if you plan just to play around, you can go with 3.0. If you plan to use it on a new project, I would stick on an older release.