Python for Absolute Beginners (2nd Edition)

Python for Absolute Beginners (2nd Edition), the micro-video edition, is an introductory Python textbook by Xiao Jiaoyu (real name Li Jiayu), founder of the FishC Studio, published by Tsinghua University Press in June 2019. It has 13 chapters, 422 pages, and about 670,000 Chinese characters, and is a comprehensive upgrade of the 2016 first edition, covering Python 3.7. The book follows the principle of "understanding first, application above all": wherever a concept can be explained through an example, it is demonstrated with a small, everyday case rather than piled-up terminology and definitions. The first half covers basic syntax: from how to get Python and start the interpreter with IDLE, through variables, strings, conditionals, and loops, into data structures such as lists, tuples, and dictionaries, and on to advanced topics including functions, abstraction, exception handling, magic methods, and property iterators. Each chapter includes "classroom exercises" and the author's "failed attempts" demonstrations, laying out the mistakes beginners commonly make. The second half turns to applications, with examples built around web scraping, Tkinter and EasyGui graphical interface development, and Pygame game development, applying the syntax learned earlier to small projects that actually run. The book comes with about 30 hours of micro-video lessons, ideal for coding along while watching. Because the basic syntax section does not depend on the newest version features, beginners using Python 3.7 through 3.12 can still follow it; just note that the installation and usage of a few libraries may have been updated.