• New to Python? This is the developer's guide to Python development!

• Learn the core features of Python as well as advanced topics such as regular expressions, multithreaded programming, Web/Internet and network development, GUI development with Tk(inter) and more

• Also includes features found in the new Python 1.6 and 2.0 releases

• CD-ROM: Complete Python distributions (source code, documentation, and various binaries) plus all example scripts in the book

• Python syntax and style

• Development and Run-time Environments

• Objects and Python memory management

• Standard data types, methods, and operators

• Loops and conditionals

• Files and Input/Output

• Exceptions and error handling

• Functions, scope, arguments, and functional programming

• Importing modules and module attributes

• Object-oriented Programming with classes, methods, and instances

• Callable Objects

• Extending Python

• Regular expressions

• TCP/IP and UDP/IP Network programming using sockets

• Operating system interface

• GUI development with Tk using Tkinter

• Multithreaded programming

• Interactive Web/CGI/Internet applications

• Executing code in a restricted environment

• Inheritance, type emulation, operator overloading, and delegation in an OOP environment

• DEMONSTRATES how to write commercial-quality code

• FEATURES dozens of programs and examples!

• FOCUSES on the features and functions most important to real developers

• PROVIDES objective, unbiased coverage of cutting-edge technologies-no

• hype!

• Coverage of the core parts of the Python language

• Real-world insights for developing Web/Internet, network, multithreaded and GUI applications

• Tables and charts detailing Python modules, built-in functions, operators, and attributes

• Code snippets to try live with Python's interactive interpreter, hammering the concepts home

• Extensive code examples-including several complete sample applications

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 37 Ratings

disappointed: bad production - 2008-06-12
Reviewer Rating:
I got this book because of its many positive reviews, but I'm not happy with it.

I'm a professional programmer. C++ is my main language, but I know C, Java, Perl, Smalltalk. I have used Python a fair amount in the past; I wanted to go through a Python book because I'm starting a new project in Python and the language has changed since I last used it.

My main criticism of this book (2nd edition, 3rd printing) is its sloppy production. It is loaded with typos, broken code, and other errors. I'm surprised that most other reviewers didn't comment on this fact. The author knows about many of these errors and has corrections posted on the web, where he airily excuses the book's errors as being "due to lack of time or priority during the highly-compressed editing phase." If he or the publisher really cared, many of these errors would have been corrected by the third printing. (Many would not require resetting even a full line of type.)

As other reviewers have said, Chun's writing is rather disorganized and conversational. That's not to my taste, but evidently it suits lots of people. For the length of the book, the depth is not great.

Some reviewers say that this is the best book they have seen for beginning programmers. Maybe they are not familiar with Kernighan and Ritchie's classic, _The C Programming Language_. That book, in my opinion, is the standard of excellence.

Overall I prefer Beazley's _Python Essential Reference_ 3rd edition to Chun's book. The Reference is terse and maybe not suitable for a novice, but it is thorough, accurate, well organized, and carefully produced. Chun does provide exercises after each chapter; that is the book's main positive feature, in my opinion.

So-so - 2008-12-05
Reviewer Rating:
This was recommended in a review on Slashdot, but I'm a little disappointed. Sometimes Chun just gives code with no explanation, and other times he glosses over examples of how to use things in favor of prose. I've also found some typos, perhaps the most amusing of which is his repeatedly calling Python creator Guido van Rossum "van Rossum Guido" in one part of the book.

I haven't read any other Python books, but even if this one really is a best-of-breed, IMHO it is just so-so.

Hence, I decided after about 400 pages to read other things instead. I got what I wanted out of it and have it for reference in the future. Besides, my retention of programming languages apart from practice is low, and at the mo, I don't have need or opportunity to exercise more language features than I've used up to now.

Excellent reference for Python - 2009-11-15
Reviewer Rating:
Summary: Core Python Programming lives next to my keyboard.

Having been programming, in a scientific role, for a decade, I recently took up Python. This book was the text used with a short course on Python I took, and I can see why. As other reviewers have said, Python has excellent documentation; what the Python documentation usually lacks is both practical examples and an explanation of why. This book gives both of those things and in a very readable way. It's been the fastest and simplest way for me to get to grips with object-oriented concepts, and has been a great reference for most things I've needed to do.

Drawbacks: If you've never programmed before, this probably isn't for you - perhaps try Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition, which covers programming fundamentals while teaching you Python. For those with a little more background, I really like Dive Into Python 3 (free under a GNU license, so Google it). For experienced Python programmers, this perhaps doesn't have sufficient depth as it's not specialized in any one area. If you want to learn Python for basic data analysis and visualization (without a need/desire to do more), then go for Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts (Books for Professionals by Professionals).

This really is a good CORE Python book. It's not really a beginner's guide, or a specialist text on any given niche topic. It's a great reference and that's it.

Avoid this textbook pretender--ANNOYED - 2009-07-07
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased this book from a bricks and morter bookstore and after spending a frustrating week with it realized the the annoying habit of the author presenting a snippet of code and then coping-out when it came to adding anything that would make it possible to invoke the snippet (read, to make it ACTUALLY useful). He would announce that HE LEFT THAT EXERCISE FOR THE READER.
Really?
Either he has delusions of someone using this book as textbook (not a chance) or he is just too lazy.
I RETURNED THE BOOK, and by the way, I NEVER WRITE REVIEWS. That's how annoyed I was with this book.

Excellent - 2009-05-13
Reviewer Rating:
This is by far the best of the five Python books I have, and one of the best general programming books I've read. The book covers every aspect of Python, from basic syntax to regular expressions, object-oriented programming, database manipulation, GUI development, and Jython. The numerous examples are compact and emphasize the topic being presented. And Wesley Chun explains the philosophy behind Python and how to make programs more "Pythonesque."

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