What are the best resources for learning GIS programming with Python?

Question

In your opinion, what is the best book/site to learn Python with GIS goals in mind?

By "best", I mean:

• not very long (book)
• easy to understand (book/site)
• good practical examples (book/site)

Answer 1

Edit: adding more links to GIS specific resources.

• GIS Lounge's GIS + Python page
• Python Geo-Spatial Development

For straight python, his has been discussed thoroughly on Stack Overflow:

• How to learn Python?
• Newbie teaching self python, what else should I be learning?
• Fastest way to learn Python?
• How should I go about learning Python?

The second link has a link to the latest edition of a book I loved when learning pythonHow to Think Like A Computer Scientist: Learning With Python

Finally, I throw in a plug for Zed Shaw's learn python book: Learn Python the Hard Way.

Answer 2

Try http://www.gis.usu.edu/~chrisg/python/2009/ in an attempt to get back on topic :-)

Answer 3

It won't be released in paper form until December, but Erik Westra's 'Python Geo-Spatial Development' from Packt Press looks promising: https://www.packtpub.com/python-geo-spatial-development/book

I second Chris Garrard's materials at: http://www.gis.usu.edu/~chrisg/python/2009/

There are videos on general Python concepts and skills at Miro: http://python.mirocommunity.org/

Lots of good Python videos from PyCon at blip: http://pycon.blip.tv/

Answer 4

For Python GIS, see the FOSS4G 2010 python workshop and the corresponding slides

A good start, mainly oriented on Pylons framework and Geoalchemy, the two main components of Mapfish Server

Edit : Do a

git clone https://github.com/elpaso/python-gis-workshop

see into the pdf all the links related to GIS for python and enjoy !

Answer 5

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the official Python tutorial. I have been working through it on and off for the past couple of years, and I have found it to be both simple and helpful.

http://docs.python.org/tutorial/

Answer 6

Dive Into Python. Good and free. Provides good intro to many basic Pythonic principles.

Here's a shameless plug for a article I wrote for ArcUser on geoprocessing with Python.

Answer 7

Take a look at "A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python‎" - Hans Petter Langtangen - 2009

With 693 pages it’s maybe a bit long, but it matches the other two of your requirements nicely. A preview is available at Google books

Answer 8

NC State's Master of GIS Programming course is available for free online. They cover more in my opinion than the Penn State course with some ESRI specifics (script tools).

Answer 9

The Penn State free course on Python and geoprocessing in ArcGIS is very easy to follow and is very much oriented towards ArcGIS users rather than developers, so you might like it.

Answer 10

Whilst this doesn't strictly relate to Python for GIS, the best resource I have found up to now for learning straight Python is Codeacademy, here: http://www.codecademy.com/

Courses are well structured, with regular challenges and tasks to reinforce learning. Best of all, it's completely free.

Answer 11

There is a great compilation of resources from a similar thread titled What are some resources for learning Python and arcpy? Here you will find links to everything from tutorials and free classes to books and blogs. This is really an excellent comprehensive resource!