Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language [Paperback]

Mark Summerfield (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0137129297 | ISBN-13: 978-0137129294 | Publication Date: December 26, 2008 | Edition: 1st

This edition has been superseded by the second edition! The two editions have mostly the same material, apart from corrections and a couple of new chapters in the second edition (which is why it is bigger). They are both around the same price, so the second edition is much better value. This first edition covers Python 3.0; the second edition covers both Python 3.0 and 3.1 (clearly marking the differences.) Keep in mind that 3.1 is the minimum 3.x edition that Python's developers recommend (3.0 won't even get security fixes). Also, thanks to the language moratorium, the Python 3.1 language will be unchanged in Python 3.2 (which will have bugfixes & improvements to the library & many other under the hood improvements of course), so the second edition is good for Python 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2.

Python 3 is the best version of the language yet: It is more powerful, convenient, consistent, and expressive than ever before. Now, Mark Summerfield demonstrates how to write code that takes full advantage of Python 3's features and idioms. The first book written from a completely "Python 3" viewpoint, Programming in Python 3 brings together all the knowledge you need to write any program, use any standard or third-party Python 3 library, and create new library modules of your own.

 

Summerfield draws on his many years of Python experience to share deep insights into Python 3 development you won't find anywhere else. This book's coverage includes

 

• Developing in Python using procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming paradigms
• Creating custom packages and modules
• Writing and reading binary, text, and XML files, including optional compression, random access, and text and XML parsing
• Leveraging advanced data types, collections, control structures, and functions
• Spreading program workloads across multiple processes and threads
• Programming SQL databases and key-value DBM files
• Utilizing Python's regular expression mini-language and module
• Building usable, efficient, GUI-based applications
• Advanced programming techniques, including generators, function and class decorators, context managers, descriptors, abstract base classes, metaclasses, and more

 

Programming in Python 3 serves as both tutorial and language reference, with all the examples tested on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and downloadable from the author's website.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

A sample chapter and all the book's examples can be downloaded from the book's web page. (Amazon don't allow URLs so google for "qtrac" to find the page.)

About the Author

Mark Summerfield, owner of Qtrac Ltd., is an independent trainer, consultant, technical editor, and writer specializing in Python, C++, Qt, and PyQt. His books include Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt: The Definitive Guide to PyQt Programming (Addison-Wesley, 2008) and, cowritten with Jasmin Blanchette, C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (Addison-Wesley, 2006). As Trolltech’s documentation manager, Mark founded and edited Trolltech’s technical journal, Qt Quarterly.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (December 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137129297
• ISBN-13: 978-0137129294
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #63 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Python

More About the Author

Mark Summerfield is a computer science graduate with many years experience working in the software industry, primarily as a programmer. He also spent a few years as Trolltech's documentation manager where he founded and edited Trolltech's technical journal, Qt Quarterly. Mark owns Qtrac Ltd., http://www.qtrac.eu, where he works as an independent programmer, author, editor, and trainer, specializing in C++, Qt, Python, and PyQt.

All Mark's books are aimed at programmers and others, such as students, scientists, and engineers, who already have some programming experience (how much depends on the individual book). Each solo book has its own page on the Qtrac website from which the source code can be downloaded and that lists the book's errata. All the books are designed to teach technologies that Mark loves and has found to be the best of their kind.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, January 6, 2009

By 

Kelly D. Painter (Lompoc, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language (Paperback)

I am new to Python and wanted to learn. Prior to purchasing this book, I was reading "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz. I was literally half way through that book and couldn't write even a simple script due to the way that book is structured. I would not recommend that book. I was frustrated and ordered this book due to its coverage of Python 3. I am pleased.

This book takes an approach that gives the reader a quick overview of the language that is complete enough to start using Python by page 40! When the book mentions a topic that is covered elsewhere, there is a little box in the margin that tells the page that topic is covered - foward and backward. Great idea! That is very handy.

I had a little task that I wanted to write a script to do and I was able to do that easily after finishing the quick intro.

I am still reading the book and there is a lot of advanced information that I have not read yet. If the beginning of the book is any indication, it will be quite useful.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for me.., April 2, 2009

By 

R Foose "philognosist" (Quincy, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language (Paperback)

A previous reviewer mentioned his experience with Mark Lutz's book. I had a similar experience with Lutz's book too. Unfortunately, after what starts out with a very useful approach (one which should be widely used by other authors) of getting you up and running quickly, Summerfield's book falls into the same problems that Lutz's book had. Namely, it s very densely written, with no obvious separation in the text from what is the useful overall knowledge about a topic and what is the more arcane. I plodded through about the first third of the book, until I realized I was becoming confused about what I already knew about Python..so I quit. To be fair, the book is not intended as a tutorial so much as it is a reference. But I have to say, that it needs a major overhaul before it can be really useful in this context too. For example, more separation using white space, or sub heads, or something, should separate sections within a chapter, and separate examples and illustrations from unrelated previous or subsequent text. A little more use of emphasis or italics to highlight key text would be nice as well. And the font used for text and code is too similar, in my opinion. Especially when the code is inline with the text. That Summerfield knows Python is quite obvious. Too bad he and his publisher are not a bit more aware of how to present that knowledge to the rest of the world.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning should always be this easy, August 29, 2009

By 

E. Parker (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language (Paperback)

Having learned several programming languages, I am well aware of the pains of a poorly written book, and the joys of a well written one. This book stands out from the crowd as a well written and logically ordered introduction to the language.

If you have never programed before, this may not be the best book. It talks about many programming topics with the expectation that you already know what they are. That said, even if you have a weak programming background, (one semester of BASIC?) you will have all the necessary vocab to understand this book. Summerfield still does explain quite a lot.

As other reviewers said, the first 40 pages of this book are dense with information, but once you finish, you will have all the knowledge to write simple but complete programs. This book is worth every penny of its very reasonable pricetag.

Chapters:
1) Rapid Introduction
2) Data Types
3) Collection Data Types
4) Control Structures and Functions
5) Modules
6) Object-oriented Programming
7) File Handling
8) Advanced Programming Techniques
9) Processes and Threading
10) Networking
11) Database Programming
12) Regular Expressions
13) Introduction to GUI Programming