Nice to see a more friendly coding forum!
Years ago I was recommended by other programmers to start off programming in Python, as it's teaches you how to write proper code. That is right up my alley, as I'm a stickler to doing things properly early, to avoid headaches later.
My background is basically in web design (XHTML/CSS) and illustration, so jumping into the programming side is like diving into the deep end of the pool! It's not that I can't "see" how the code can function that's confusing, it's understanding how/why the code works to get something done that stumps me (I'm a nuts and bolts type). So I took the book route to "dig in" on Python.
Did get the latest (3rd edition) "Learning Python" tome from O'Reilly, and from reading the introduction discovered that, although not required, it recommends getting a "programming fundementals" book.
Would you know of a good primer of such a book, and any other book to get a good grounding from the start (such as references; concepts; things to avoid that will help)? Looking at Amazon there's a maze of books, so it's difficult to find the ones that are clearly written and justify being called an "introduction" and "reference" (they all look the same to me).
I'll be interested in designing small programs for my computer (organization lists; catergory listings for images, etc.), to eventually doing game modding (did the graphics side, but need to understand the scripting side now), if this helps in pointers.
Thanks!