Foundations of Agile Python Development (Expert's Voice in Open Source) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

You’ve long been enamored with the Python language, and have mastered its many nuances. Yet something seems to be missing—a productivity boost that you know is possible but you’re not sure how to go about it. This was the sentiment of so many developers before discovering Agile programming paradigm, which embraces concepts such as automation, effective code management, and test–driven development.

Foundations of Agile Python Development is the first book to apply these sought–after principles to Python developers, introducing both the tools and techniques built and supported by the Python community. Authored by Jeff Younker, a well–known member of Python’s agile community who is perhaps best known for his creation of a popular Python testing framework, this book is sure to be a hit among readers who may have reached their limits of knowledge regarding the Python language, yet are seeking to improve their understanding of how sound processes can boost productivity to unparalleled heights.

What you’ll learn

• Understand why the Agile movement is increasing productivity and decreasing programmer stress the world around.
• Use Eclipse and Subversion to add a whole new level of efficiency to your daily programming activities.
• Change your perspective on testing from a necessary evil to a compelling and crucial part of your development process.
• Automate your build process, eliminating much of the tedium surrounding testing and deployment tasks.

Who is this book for?

Python developers seeking to take advantage of efficient developer tools and techniques to boost productivity

About the Author

Jeff Younker once trained in mathematics and biochemistry at the University of Houston, but was lost to the world of computers early in his trials. He has been employed in one capacity or another in the world of scripts and programming for over 15 years. He’s been developing in Python for the last several years after a long stint working with Java and Perl.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Apress (June 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590599810
• ISBN-13: 978-1590599815
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,576 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Likely very good for a niche audience., September 6, 2008

By	RF RDC - See all my reviews

I think the author does a fine job of presenting what he set our to do. However, what he did is likely targeted to a rather narrow audience - one that I think could be broadened. I think an overview of IDEs suitable for the environment would have been more appealing than choosing one and relying on the specifics of it to demonstrate Agile Development. Same with the choice of revision control. If you are working in an environment with the author's choice of IDE and revision control, then you will likely be very content with the lack of overhead perhaps required by offering other tools. I don't use the author's choice of IDE or revision control and this does tend to infringe on the broader aspects of Agile Development applicable to many python development environments. You kind of have to parse through some really well-written work and say 'this would be great if it referred directly to my development environment.' I give kudos for the work but wish it were either expanded to hit a larger audience, or was appropriately abstracted to keep the tight flow, minus the specific tools.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the intro chapter is worth it, August 3, 2008

By	Andriy Drozdyuk "Andriyko" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I was not disappointed when I started reading this book.
The first chapter which covers the theory of "Agile Development", is just great.
Now, I am no agile programming expert. The only thing I currently do is write a lot unit tests. But I think I will take some advice for the future (like pair-p.) from this book.
The pace of the book is great (relief after the lutz books), and the authors personal experience in the field is both reassuring, encouraging and interesting.
Coming from a background of C#.NET I am glad that python is getting some help in IDE department and will certainly give some tools a try.
I love the book but YMMV.

Errata (apress does not provide one):
P.99: There is a mention of configure.py in the file list of svn with ? status. This file was never mentioned before.
Where did it come from and what does it represent???

p.109: " 'factory': f " should really be with "f1" at the bottom.

p.112: When issuing "create-slave" command the slave name used is "rsreader-linux"
whereas it was configured to be "slave-lnx01".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely useful book for Python programmers., December 2, 2008

By	Shawn Milochik "ShawnMilo" (Reading, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're like me, you started programming by writing code. You learned the syntax, looked up things as you went along, and eventually became a proficient programmer. In other words, you took the bottom-up approach.

Now you're hearing all the buzz-words: agile, revision control, test-driven development, unit testing, stubs, mock-ups, code coverage, and more. This stuff requires a top-down approach -- understanding it on a high level before being able to use it to its fullest. Sure, you probably use CVS or Subversion and test your code. But this book gives you the full picture, and ties everything together.

If this wasn't taught in school when you learned to code, or you earned your skills the hard way, and you love Python, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Check out the table of contents and see for yourself. I like the fact that it explains the high-level concepts clearly and with enough background that you feel like you "get it" before moving on to the examples.