I don't know if a suggestion is allowed here. I am an absolute beginner trying to substitute my matlab+fortran with python. I just passed the stage of tutorials and I have to struggle looking for the right syntax to implement my simple-minded programs. The learning curve is much steeper than for matlab, certainly due to the greater power of the language. The thing I need is a good reference manual. 

I find the Language Reference extremely poor in examples. The Library Reference is marginally better. Would you please consider sponsoring (as a developer-user community) a style that forces to include very short examples?  Thanks Roberto

Did you try http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ ?

Welcome to Python!  We hope you’ll have a great time using it.

The language reference is useful to understand subtleties or implement a Python interpreter, not for common use.  The library reference is, well, a reference manual to use when you already know the modules.  Another resource with more examples is http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/articles/.  SilentGhost gave you the link to the official tutorial; more links are given on http://wiki.python.org/moin/FrontPage.  If you still have questions, the python-list mailing list or #python IRC channel are full of nice people with answers.

I hope those links get you started in the right direction.  Since this report does not contain a specific error in the Python doc, I am closing it.

If you want to suggest the policy of adding short examples to all our docs, please bring it up to the python-dev mailing list.

Thank you, Eric. My comment was not intended either as a bug (I thought 
it was the wrong place to post it, but coud not find any better) or a 
help request. It is just a suggestion.

We non professional progammers happen to be writing code for some time, 
then stopping, then coming back. Therefore we often vaguely know how to 
do, but do not remember the syntax well. The best solution is a great 
reference manual. The reference structure makes the info easy to find,  
then you want a definition, and an example as well, to clarify the 
usage. I noticed that the present stage of documentation is not ideal, 
and , to my understanding, what is lacking most is the simple example part.

I will post this on the the python-dev list, as you suggest.  Thanks 
again Roberto

Il 21/03/2011 11:36 PM, Éric Araujo ha scritto:
> Éric Araujo<merwok@netwok.org>  added the comment:
>
> Welcome to Python!  We hope you’ll have a great time using it.
>
> The language reference is useful to understand subtleties or implement a Python interpreter, not for common use.  The library reference is, well, a reference manual to use when you already know the modules.  Another resource with more examples is http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/articles/.  SilentGhost gave you the link to the official tutorial; more links are given on http://wiki.python.org/moin/FrontPage.  If you still have questions, the python-list mailing list or #python IRC channel are full of nice people with answers.
>
> I hope those links get you started in the right direction.  Since this report does not contain a specific error in the Python doc, I am closing it.
>
> If you want to suggest the policy of adding short examples to all our docs, please bring it up to the python-dev mailing list.
>
> ----------
> assignee: docs@python ->
> nosy: +eric.araujo
> resolution:  ->  works for me
> stage:  ->  committed/rejected
> status: open ->  closed
>
> _______________________________________
> Python tracker<report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue11622>
> _______________________________________