The first _Learning Python_, based on Python 1.5. My parts covered the core language, and drew from both an appendix in the first _Programming Python_ of _1996_ and my expanding training experiences. There's really no better way to hone teaching material than to present it live to rooms full of users and critics. My first _editor_ wanted this book for people who would find the technically heavier _Programming_ too much. He was right, of course: over the years, this title has been by far the best selling of my three, and it became a de facto standard introduction to a tool that rose to the top of the programming-languages _heap_. A lot of people contributed to Python over the years, but this title's teaching and publicity roles made it a major factor behind that rise. It's still playing that part some three decades _later_.