Book Details
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Author:Edited by Alex Martelli & David Ascher
Pages:574
Publisher:O'Reilly
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer:CIQUERY - support@ciquery.com
ISBN:0596001673
The background
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The "Python Cookbook" applies opensource principles to authoring. Over
200 authors were involved in developing the content for this book
of Python recipes.Originally , most of the contributions were made
through a web site and then carefully edited into what is now the
final product.
ActiveState built a website where anyone could contribute a
"recipe" and after much peer review and editing was transformed
into the "Python Cookbook".
Hello, Python Cookbook
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As I am new to the Python language and it is quite clear that
this book is not a teaching programming book, I expected to dip
in ,grasp some of the more basic principles and push myself with some
of the more complex aspects.Ultimately, to make the most of this book,
you have to have a basic grasp of the language, but that is not to say
you have to be an expert.
What's bad?
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So, who is this book targeted at? The Foreward , written by Guido van Rossum,
and other pr material make it clear that the book has a dual personality,
attempting to satisfy both new programmers and experienced programmers.
I find this an unusual direction , and I do understand it is tempting and maybe, even
necessary to satisfy both audiences at once, the final result is slightly
skewed.
The new programmer is potentially better off reading a more structured learning book,
and the more experienced programmer would probably want to dip into a more specialist
text that discusses in greater depth Python concepts.
What's Good?
------------------------------------
Python Cookbook has all the characteristics of a good reference book: clear,
easy to read exposition of the main issues, why they're important, and,
technically, excellently documented code written for an increasingly
popular platform.
The book is broken down into 17 chapters (outlined below) . Each one is clearly
headed and allows the reader to explore different issues within a given topic.
This is particularly useful , if you are looking for a fresh way of looking
at a problem or if you simply want to learn something new.
Each issue is clearly outlined.For example, the topic "Sorting while Guaranteeing
Sort Stability", is broken down into the subheadings - Problem,Solution,Discussion.
This is excellent, as this allows a good exploration of a topic and all within
just two pages! This book really is all about byte-size information , easily
digestible but not detracting from the depth of the language.
Chapters
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1.Python Shortcuts
2.searching and Sorting
3.Text
4.Files
5.Object-Oriented Programming
6.Threads,Processes and Synchronization
7.System Administration
8.Databases and Persistence
9.User Interfaces
10.Network Programming
11.Web programming
12.Processing XML
13.Distributed Programming
14.Debugging and Testing
15.Programs about programs
16.Extending and Embedding
17.Algorithms
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