VANCOUVER, British Columbia – March 3, 2004 – ActiveState's Dr. David Ascher recently co-authored a new edition of Learning Python. Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Learning Python, Second Edition, offers programmers a comprehensive learning tool for Python and object-oriented programming. Thoroughly updated, this guide introduces the basic elements of the latest release of Python 2.3 and covers new features such as list comprehensions, nested scopes, and iterators/generators.

Python is an easy-to-learn, dynamic interpreted language, used for both scripting and systems programming. Organizations such as Disney, NASA, Google, HP, JP Morgan Chase, Dell, Deloitte and Touche, and BAE utilize Python for its power and rapid development environment.

David manages the ActiveState division of Sophos, an international software company headquartered in the UK. A key figure in the Python community, David is a director of the Python Software Foundation as well as a Python trainer and frequent speaker at software conferences, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. He is also the co-editor for The Python Cookbook, published by O'Reilly. David holds a B.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, both from Brown University.

Find out for yourself why Learning Python is one of O'Reilly & Associates top-selling books!