Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

Some thought this book was to give them the basics about Python 3.x; turn the book, it is written: the readers are supposed to have a "previous programming experience." The first chapters are no different, the syntax will not be explained. Actually, you do not need to know Python's syntax to fully understand the book. Programming experience is enough, examples are given in the right order, the best practices are explained not in full details when related to the core language (however, even if he said he will not, the author spends some lines outlining what is really needed). No, it is not required to have completely read a introductive text about Python; of course, it helps, the reader can get more quickly into the full depth of the examples.

Throughout the book you can find examples - realistic, complete (up to thousands of lines for PyMailGUI) -, not a few lines explaining only the concept; you will find there examples for you to understand everything about the studied concept, along with more detailed examples, with comments, concept explanation paragraphs, and the like. One can say he builds his examples step by step, no one can get lost - even when he starts with threads, a subject many developers just do not like, he manages to make everyone completely aware of all those technical subtleties about beginning with threads. Everything here is also shown in use in real world applications.
Examples also mean that the whole book is not all about theory, there are some examples chapters, chapters totally dedicated to a single example, using many snippets written before (code reutilisation is important).

Almost every main subject in Python is covered: system programming, as Python is a replacement for Perl, Bash scripts, etc.; GUIs, as Python can do as much as C++ can in the GUIs' world; Internet, as Python is growing fast with frameworks like Django or Zope (even though any of these is covered: none currently supports Python 3). The main problem is that important things cannot find a place in that book: ZODB, Zope, Django, MySQL, etc. are not yet ported to Python 3; the book only covers Python 3 and thus cannot say much about these. Note that ZODB is shown, in its Python 2 flavour, to show the basics about OODB; wilingly, no Web framework is getting more than a paragraph or two, these technologies are said to change often.

Though this is an impressive book (about 1,600 pages), it is almost impossible to cover so many subjects in so few pages. Even if it lacks a few topics, this book is more than far complete. Some chapters help you understand the basics of things that cannot be covered (CGI scripting is shown, it is not used anymore for new Web projects, but current Web frameworks are based on these principles).

Note: I got this book thanks to a parternship between Developpez.com and O'Reilly.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

If you decide to buy this book, there a few things you should know: it doesn't have a language reference and it is not meant for a complete beginners in Python.
Having that in mind, the book is amazingly good structured, with short and concise examples that will get you where you need to go with either language fundamentals or with some advanced examples. It is focused on Python 3.x so if you're still programming in version 2.x, better get some other book.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

I learned so much about programming properly from the first edition of this book that I have bought every edition since.

Mark's writing style really suites the context of exploring Python through code.

In my opinion, the example applications could have done with more of a refresh for the fourth edition, especially as 3.X brought so many new features to explore.

Highly recommended for programmers new to Python, or Python programmers looking to up their game.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

This review is a partial translation of my full review in Spanish: http://chemaper.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-review-programming-python.html.

Sorry for my bad English and thanks O'Reilly Media for the free copy of the book (Blogger Review Program).

The book "Programming Python" covers how to use Python in several domains: system programming, text processing (both traditional fields of Perl), rapid desktop GUIs development and Internet applications.

The book does not cover the learning of the language. This is the target of the first book of the "Python saga" of Mark Lutz, "Learning Python". Reading "Learning Python" before "Programming Python" is not required, but a strong previous knowledge of Python it is. A third book of Python ecosystem is "Python Pocket Reference", a very useful and brief book.

This new edition of "Programming Python" is updated to cover Python 3.x. Indeed, it covers Python 3 only; when something is different between Python 2.x and 3.x the book alerts about it but only explains the 3.0 API. This is OK if you are migrating from 2.x to 3.x, but if you are new in Python and need to use 2.x version (some modules are not updated yet) you will need a extra reference book or go to original documentation. For example, "Python Pocket Reference" covers both 2.x y 3.x versions.

If you buy the ebook, I recommend the O'Reilly shop, because users has a bookshelf with their books in multiple formats. I think this is useful. For example, while testing and playing with the examples in the laptop, the PDF version is the best option. But 1600 pages are a lot to read in a computer PDF reader and a ebook reader (EPUB, Kindle) is better for relax reading sessions. The book format for Kindle is good, but comments in source code at the rigth end of the line instead of in the line before are bad with little screens of e-readers.

The book is very clear and good written. It has a lot of examples. Then why only 3 stars?

The negative side is that 1600 pages are a lot (even if we forget that the other book already has 1200 ). I think that sometimes the book is reiterative and many parts needs a cut. IMHO system programming and text processing contents are OK, but Internet client-side (e.g. the mail program) and TkInter parts should be shorter. Tkinter for example is good for scripts, but full applications now are written mainly with more advanced Python libraries as wxWidgets, Qt or GTK+ bindings.

First edition of the book is near 15 years ago and perhaps contents are too old now.Yes, the book is updated with the last features of Python 3.0, but most people today does not think in written POP, news or FTP clients nor in mail clients with Tkinter GUI.

I recommend studying the table of contents before buying this book. It the table of contents and extension is good for you, this book is a great election. But most people I know prefer a book shorter and with some changes in the contents.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

So you know the Python basic constructs, however probably you don't know how to build more complex programs. 'Programming Python 4th Edition' is the next step you can take in order to understand how to work with the operating system, parallel processing, traditional graphical user interfaces, and network and Internet resources. By learning this book, you'll be ready to use the Python programming language to start building applications able to serve real business problems within the context of desktop development.This books explores in additional programming constructs than the exposed ones in the author's previous book 'Learning Python 4th Edition'. Due to its extension and coverage, we can call these two books as Volume 1 (Learning Python) and Volume 2 (Programming Python) each one with 1000+ pages. But the benefit is that you'll find examples about how to work with expected programming scenarios such as processing threads, file storage, canvas drawing, and network consumption.But, there are interesting topics not enough covered yet like database handling (Object-Relational, SQL, Procedures, exceptions) and data and process security. The last is an critical concern because it is also import protect both source code and data integrity from any information spy, cracker, and thief.Despite these missing topics, I recommend this book because it leads us to develop more complete programs that just declaring some classes and methods. With this book we are closer to build full applications using the next generation programming language. Thanks what I believe.Note: This book review is in exchange of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program (http://oreilly.com/bloggers/)

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

This is a massive book, over $70 from my retailer. Too big and unwieldy to sit on a desk.

This seems to be a departure for O'Reilly. I purchased the first edition of Programming Perl, which was both a) language fundamentals, and b) a language reference. So I was expecting the same from this book.

BUT NO! Right in the introduction, I see "This book is NOT a language reference or a book on language fundamentals". Hey forget that.

The other thing I noticed is that many examples in the book use the interactive mode, which I'd say is not idiomatic for 90% of all people using the language. So why waste the paper?

I have probably purchased ~30 O'Reilly books throughout my career, and they have always been a) concise, b) useful. This book is neither.

Save your money. This book is the pits.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

Programming Python, 4th Edition by Mark Lutz continues to be an excellent book for Python programmers of all levels.

If you are new to Python you definitely want to start with Learning Python or some other introductory book. Once you are familiar with the basics Programming Python should be your next step. While the author repeatedly mentions that this is not a reference book I think you'll find yourself referring to it frequently. The tutorial programs are not only excellent examples how to do something in Python, but also how to do it well.

This version of the book covers Python 3, the latest version of the language. Since Python 3 and Python 2 are not fully compatible this is a big change. If you are new, start with Python 3 and then only reach for Python 2 if the need arises (say a module or library that isn't yet ported to v3). The examples in the book can, for the most part, be used with Python 2 with relatively minor changes.

At more than 1600 pages even the PDF is heavy. But it is well enough written that, as far as programming books go, this is a real page turner.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

Programming Python provides practical methods with Python standard library, especially focus on how to program system managing tools and GUI applications and network programming and Python/C integration. We can learn them precisely with detail sample programs step by step. Especially the Python/C integration section is interesting for me because it suggests also the trade off and valance between pure Python code and C/C++ native code.

I recommend a person who already understand Python language well and have an experience to use Python and C on one's development. In each category, though many topics are included with detail sample programs, some of them are shallow explanations as technically. But this book provides us a good start point to deep into by ourselves.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

Python is a computer programming language which is being employed in several different areas or multidisciplinary areas, such as Bioinformatic. Consequently, the professionals need to understand what resources a computer programming language has. This book allows those professionals to understand how good Python can be for their requirement.

Different aspects for Python 3 have been shown in this book. Developers who have already worked with Python can design their algorithms attending the needs for Python 3 and, also, understand the updates they will have to make in their source code. On other hand, developers who have never worked with Python or other computer programming language can study Python under its version 3, the newer version of Python. Furthermore, it is described how the developers can integrate Python with C language. Thus, as mentioned by the author, the developer can have a productive language (Python) and the advantage of the programming language C (speed).

Comments about O'Reilly Media Programming Python, 4th Edition:

Programming Python is one of the biggest programming book I've ever seen (1600 pages). The book is really complete, if you do not count the frameworks and the beginners. The reason for the laking of frameworks talk is explained by the author that affirms that there was not enough space to speak about them. The reason for the laking of beginners topics is explained by the existence of another book (written by Mark Lutz too) called 'Learning Python' and that speaks about all these basic things that are not explained in this book. I think this is a very good book to study deeply Python, while I would suggest to anyone that is looking to learn Python from scratch and to anyone that is looking to learn a framework to look for another book.Speaking, more specifically, of the touched topics, we can find: representing records, persistent storage, classes, console interaction, GUI programming, web interfaces, practical examples of using system tools, file handling, parallelism, networks, CGI scripting, databases. I think this book quality is lowered a little bit by its age. Even if I have the 4th edition (released about a couple of months ago) a lot of the things that are covered (like low level CGI scripting) are not useful anymore (if we don't consider scholastics reasons), because today creating a Web App without a framework is a pretty insane thing.This book is very complete and the cost is pretty appropriate (I think). We are speaking about [$] for the printed edition, even if I suggest the PDF one ([$]) for the lower price and lower environmental footprint (remember we are speaking about 1600 pages ;)).