Programming Python [Paperback]

Mark Lutz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Programming Python is a classic O'Reilly Nutshell Handbook describing the use of the Python programming/scripting language. Python is a popular scripting language freely available over the Net. Like Perl, Python is powerful, but easier to use than a traditional compiler language like C or C++. Although it is used mostly in UNIX environments (including Linux), it is available on Windows and Mac platforms as well. Unlike Perl, Python uses an object-oriented paradigm, making it a particularly useful scripting language for C++ programmers and the Windows/OLE and Mac environments. This book will serve the Python community as our Programming Perl book does for the Perl community. This book complements the online reference material provided with the Python releases. It is endorsed by the creator of Python, Guido van Rossum, who wrote the foreword. The CD-ROM included with the book contains Python 1.3 binaries for most popular UNIX platforms, as well as Linux, Windows, NT, and the Mac. This book is the most comprehensive Python user material available from any publisher. It contains a number of running examples, presented simply at first but becoming more complex as new issues appear. Examples describing Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming use the Tk language. (Tk is usually considered a part of the Tcl scripting language, but is in fact usable with other scripting languages like Perl and Python.) An appendix contains a separate short language tutorial.

Product Details

• Paperback: 880 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly (September 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565921976
• ISBN-13: 978-1565921979
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,805,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars poorly organized introduction to python, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Programming Python (Paperback)

I thought this would be similar to Programming Perl, both a good introduction to the language *and* a decent reference. Unfortunately, it does neither task well.

It fails as a reference because 1) it is poorly organized: information on each concept (printing, for example), is scattered throughout the book; 2) the index is atrocious. There is no way to find the key description of any part of the language using the index, and I often find important concepts in the book that are not in the index.

The poor index, combined with the scattered organization, means I'm constantly frustrated when I want to look up some particular element of the language.

As an introduction, the book is OK. I would have liked to see some meatier code examples. As another reviewer mentioned, the examples are more about the syntax of the language than actual applications that you might learn from. This is a style point -- if you learn best from large chunks of example code, this is not the book for you.

Also, key modules (sys and math, for example) are barely mentioned.

--Pat / [e-mail]

4.0 out of 5 stars useful book, June 4, 2009

By 

Jeff Sakurai "jubei18" (OC, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Programming Python (Paperback)

i was using this book quite heavily for reference when i was programming in python. it was very useful and easy to find what i needed. the book was slightly worn, but i guess that is what is expected considering it was a used book.