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Programming Python

Release Date: 1996-01-15
Average Customer Rating:

List Price: $44.95

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Product Description
Programming Python focuses on advanced uses of the Python programming/scripting language, which has evolved from an emerging language of interest primarily to pioneers, to a widely accepted tool that traditional programmers use for real day-to-day development tasks. With Python, you can do almost anything you can do with C++; but Python is an interpreted language designed for rapid application development and deployment. Among other things, Python supports object-oriented programming; a remarkably simple, readable, and maintainable syntax; integration with C components; and a vast collection of pre-coded interfaces and utilities. As Python has grown to embrace developers on a number of different platforms (Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac), companies have taken notice and are adopting Python for their products. It has shown up animating the latest Star Wars movie, serving up maps and directories on the Internet, guiding users through Linux installations, testing chips and boards, managing Internet discussion forums, scripting online games, and even scripting wireless products. Programming Python is the most comprehensive resource for advanced Python programmers available today. Reviewed and endorsed by Python creator Guido van Rossum, who also provides the foreword, this book zeroes in on real-world Python applications. It's been updated for Python 2.0 and covers Internet scripting, systems programming, Tkinter GUIs, C integration domains, and new Python tools and applications. Among them: IDLE, JYthon, Active Scripting and COM extensions, Zope, PSP server pages, restricted execution mode, the HTMLgen and SWIG code generators, thread support, CGI and Internet protocol modules. Such applications are the heart and soul of this second edition. Veteran O'Reilly author Mark Lutz has included a platform-neutral CD-ROM with book examples and various Python-related packages, including the full Python 2.0 source code distribution.

Amazon.com Review
Completely revised and improved, the second edition of Programming Python is an excellent compendium of material geared toward the more knowledgeable Python developer. It includes dozens of reusable scripts for common scripting tasks, and is one of the best available sources of information for this popular object-oriented scripting language.

In over 1,200 pages of material, this book offers an extremely comprehensive guide to Python development. Though his book is densely packed with information, Mark Lutz is a lively and witty writer whose focus is on getting things done using the natural strengths of the Python language. To that end, after an introduction and history of the language, the book shows how to use Python for performing automated tasks with files and directories (for example, for doing backups both locally and on Web servers). Not only will this book teach you more about Python, but it will also give you a library of code that you can use as is or adapt for your own projects.

The text covers every conceivable facet of Python and the language's support for networking, files and directories, task management, and even persistence (through its support for shelves). Complete Python programs show how to create e-mail clients, do reporting, and create Web applications (for an online errata database). Chapters on doing graphics programming in Python, as well as coverage of both built-in and custom data structures, are especially good. Because Python is often used for automating installations (in some Linux distributions, for instance), readers will appreciate the sample code and tips for using Python to create bulletproof installs.

Later sections show how get Python to work with C, Java (through JPython), and other languages. The book concludes with useful reference sections summarizing key aspects of Python, like its revision history, relationship to C++, and other material. There aren't many titles on Python, and fans of this up-and-coming language are lucky to have such a solid tutorial and guide available in Programming Python. Perfect for those with just a little previous exposure to the language, it's all you need to master Python in-depth and tap its considerable power for virtually any software project. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

Introduction to Python
Basic system scripts with Python (including file and directory tools)
Working with processes and threads
Pipes and signals
Sample scripts for system and Web utilities (including backing up files, program launching, replicating and managing directories)
Graphical user interface design in Python (including the Tkinter module)
Widgets and basic components
Layout options
Event handling
GUI examples (including a working text editor, image viewer, and clock)
Network scripting (sockets, FTP, and e-mail clients)
Server-side scripting
Sample server scripts for an online errata database
Python on the Internet (including Zope, JPython, and XML tools)
Databases and persistence in Python (including pickled objects and shelf files)
Custom and built-in data structures in Python
Text and string handling
C integration with Python (including the SWIG module)
Embedding Python calls within C
Hints for using Python in real projects
Reference to recent changes to Python
Python vs. C++ quick-start guide

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Learning Python (Help for Programmers)	Python Cookbook	Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))	Python Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))	Python Essential Reference (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library)

Product Reviews:

Very big, not always very useful.
Very big, not always very useful. I find in this book a brevity of many things that deserve more space and too much space allocated to many things. The book has an intro section on Stepping up to OOP; looks promising but then immediately leads you down the track of adding persistence and on to using OOP for GUIs. To me, this is not a well thought out approach. Think the reader would have been better served with an overview of OOP in use in Python, expanding the concept generically to OOP and then referring to some specialized instance of where OOP either comes in real handy or is a must. Part III GUI Programming is pretty much a mess. Granted I think it is a good idea to have a basic idea of Tkinter - but there is more out there that I would rather read about. I also think a book of this size should have some inclusion of Agile Development concepts, a section on Refactoring, etc. With all the subjects, just about any framework or methodology would be a prudent interlude to help congeal the sprawl of information. I am also a little biased toward scientific programming, but think many readers would appreciate an intro to numpy, pytables, or at least a simple primer on array manipulation and how it can extend the basic functionality of python and take it to a new level. I find, more often than not, that I have reached for this book and then gone back to something that is supposedly marketed as "more basic" like Learning Python or the Python Cookbook and get more what I am looking for there. Come on, something like XML processing deserves more than 3 pages of reference and if you are decked out at over 1500 pages it just seems like the book's priorities are amiss.

this book sucks ( gregory_usa )
Whenever I try to look something up about Python with this book, I end up using Google. this book is *horrible*. Lutz must be the ultimate geek nerd.
Instead of things in the table of contents like "strings", "regular expressions", "maps" - you have "Here's Looking at You, Kid!" or "Roses are red, violets are blue". Does this guy put flowers in his hair and dance barefoot in a park?
Instead of short examples, he starts writing a program; you have to study it and keep reading in order to keep up. A total disrespect for one's time.
The topics he presents are obscure, unnecessary, or have no consistent audience: What's OOP?; moving stacks to C modules; and endless discussion about GUIs.
This book has 1 readeeming quality: FIREWOOD.

Interesting, but not useful ( oblivion95 )
This is not a terrible book, but I don't know what it's good for. The code examples are too long. This reminds me of the old programming tomes from the days before CD-ROMs and the Internet, where all details had to be shown in print. There is just too much code. If you find a chapter that matches exactly what you are trying to accomplish, then maybe this book is good for you. It is vastly improved in readability over the first edition, but The Python Cookbook is a much smarter purchase (even though part of that is available online).

If you are just trying to learn Python, then Lutz's other book, Learning Python, is an excellent choice.

Good enough I suppose ( dukeeknightz )
One thing I really wish O'Reilly would have made clear on the cover is the version of Python which was current at the time of publication. In this case, it's 2.4, so if you're looking for information on things like function decorators or the new generator abilities that 2.5 brought along, you're going to be as disappointed as I was.

Aside from the fact that some of the information is dated, it's still a good overview of practical solutions to realistic problems which can be solved in the language. It does tend to spend way too much time developing TkInter GUIs (which I do not personally care about one bit) and overusing the usual array of extremely unfunny Monty Python references (which I personally stopped caring about around 1984). If you cut out both of these things the book would probably require about half as much paper per copy, and it'd be a good deal more digestible to boot. There's also lots of Windows-specific silliness and the author continues to operate under the assumption that OS X does not exist (every mention of the Mac platform refers to information that hasn't been accurate for nearly 10 years at this point).

My biggest Python book, and my least used Python book ( candlelightbooksellers )
I bought this book a few years ago, and I think I have finally given up getting anything of use out of it. It has been with me through my entire Python learning experience, so you might think there would be a point at which I would have found it useful, even if that may not presently be the case. Unfortunately, I can say that this is easily the least useful Python book I own. In fact, out of the 6 or so Python books I own, it is the only one I wouldn't miss a bit.

It's just that it never seems to have anything even close to relevant for me, when I'm working on something. I can remember several times where I thought to myself, "What's a good way to solve this problem in Python?", or, "Where can I get some background on why Python does things this way?". Invariably I have either found the answer in one of my other Python books, or on the web. It's not that I haven't tried to like the book, in fact each time a problem comes up, I think "well ok if the book can shed some light on this for me, I'll consider it a value", and yet after 3 years... nothing.

Anyway, I don't want to be all negativity, so to anybody reading this, here are the other Python books I have gotten more value out of:

The Quick Python Book by Harms/McDonald (Old, and yet, still really valuable beginning book)
Python Essential Reference by Beazley (A great reference book)
Python Cookbook by Martelli et al (what Programming Python seems like it wants to be, but in half the size and twice the value)
Python Standard Library (I don't use this much, but it still has some value)
Python in a Nutshell (I think that's the name, it's at work right now. Another decent reference)

Finally, it pretty much goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. This is just my experience. I am sure this book has been right on the money for other readers, and that's great, but for me, I think I may be donating this behemoth to my local library soon.

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