Customer Reviews

Using Google App Engine

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've been programming for 33 years, so in theory I shouldn't like a book that wastes pages explaining what HTTP and HTML are. Nor should I thrill to the first section in the Python chapter, which is called "What is Programming?"

How come I like this book so much then?

It is a self-contained 240-page book on programming. A smart motivated person with no experience could sit down and build a functional cloud app. If you had a friend who wanted to see what the life of a computer nerd was like, this is a great book. Is it as useful as the Google App Engine online docs? Not for an experienced programmer, but for the novice it is nice not to have to refer to a dozen interlocking books and Web sites in order to get "hello world" working.

The world needs more computer programming books like this.

I'm a programmer/web developer by trade, and I had dabbled a little bit with GAE and wanted this book to have a physical copy (I like carrying books around) for reference. The content regarding GAE is really good, once you get to it. Unfortunately, half the book is chock full of what I jokingly refer to as the "History of the Internet" chapters. Some books actually have a "History of the Internet" chapter, but this book has 4 chapters explaining the web, HTML, CSS, and Python. If you don't know HTML, CSS, and Python, go buy books about those topics. Maybe the author should have added chapters on "How to Use a Computer" and "How to Read this Book". It feels like the author needed X-number of pages and just filled the first half with fluff. That's why I give this book 3 stars.

The actual GAE content, however, is really good and helpful. It doesn't go as deep as I would like, but that doesn't keep it from getting a 5 star review for this part.

So really, my review is 5 stars and 1 star, averaging out to 3 stars. I buy O'Reilly books because I don't expect them to be marketed at the "for Dummies" crowd. It's usually safe to assume that the books teach the topic and assume most of the previous knowledge. Unfortunately, because the book spends half the chapters on the Dummies content and the other half not going deep enough, I have to give it 3 stars, which is really too bad because I like the way the good GAE content is present...it's just not enough.

I'm a noob programmer, and I used this book as part of a class. I'm not sure how it works on its own, but as an instructional tool, it's the, hands down, best programming textbook I have ever used.

I betatested this book before publishing for teaching a two week programming course in the University of Bobo, Burkina Fasso, during a cooperation stage.
This book not only explains with ease and clarity how to develop applications for the Google Appengine, but also explains very well the fundamentals of a web application (all the underlying architecture, protocols and languages) and the python language. After following this course the students are pursuing their own projects in python and appengine.
The code examples provided can be used as starting point for bigger applications.

I use this as my textbook in my class on learning to design web pages, and I have found it to be easy to understand and useful, especially with a teacher to supplement when I have questions, and the extra materials on the webpage that goes with the book. The HTML, CSS, and Python were the necessary tools I needed to learn first in order to use App Engine. Some of the other reviewers seemed to have expectations from "O'Reilly, and were therefore disappointed. I don't know anything about what "O'Reilly" books are supposed to be like, so I didn't have any expectations, and maybe that helped.

Using App Engine involves many technologies. If you are weak in any of them, or don't understand them, you probably won't actually get a program up and running on App Engine. This book has a very narrow aim: to walk you through all the basics you must know. Included is getting the App Engine SDK installed on your machine. I wish Google's App Engine site had this information in such a clear, step by step form.

I am an experienced programmer, so it's hard for me to judge Chapter 3, which covers Python. The book states that it can be read/used by non-programmers. Ch. 3 tries to introduce programming and Python in 30 pages. It looks like a nice attempt, but maybe a bit ambitious.

The book focuses on building up the pieces for a very simple chat application. Using this book you will have everything up and running quickly, will understand everything that is being done, and will be ready to seek out more complicated apps (which are readily available on the web).

If you aren't a geek, and want to get started with App Engine, this clear, concise book will be your best friend.

I have found this book to be very well written, explaining complex concepts in simple terms.

I would highly recommend it for beginner to intermediate level programmers. Maybe not such a good option for expert programmers that just want to quickly get to know the details of Google App Engine.

Overall a very good book for someone that has some programming knowledge, but is not an expert, and just wants to start programming with Python and Google App Engine.

I had no idea that I would need to be mildly proficient in numerous markup languages to be able to write my app to run on the google app engine. This book enlightened me without discouraging me. It walked me through how to tie together, HTML, CSS templates, Python and Google's Datastore.
This author is a gifted teacher and is what I needed as an introduction to the Google App Engine. He walked me through the different languages and gave me the confidence that I could do it. Like any good teacher, he walked me through it and encouraged me the whole while, giving me the confidence I needed to confront the Google app engine.
I highly recommend this book, especially if you not already proficient in HTML, CSS templates, Python and the Datastore. If you are already proficient in all of these languages, this book may be too basic for you.

This book was designed and written for a specific class offered through the School of Information at The University of Michigan. It is literally designed to follow along week by week with the class, so whether it is useful or not outside of the class I don't know, but I found it very helpful to follow along with the class.

If you're not in this class you might be interested to know that if you go to http://www.appenginelearn.com/ there are lecture slides and audio to go along with each chapter.

The book is a disappointment on several levels. The first 100 pages are devoted to chapters on HTML, CSS, python, and some general information about the Internet. The problem with these introductory chapters is that they are so shallow I seriously doubt they would be helpful to a beginner, and they are pointless for a programmer who already knows the material.

This wouldn't be an issue if the book was 400 or more pages long. At least the reader could get some app engine info for his money. But this book is only 200 or so pages long, not counting the appendix. That means you're getting about 100 pages dealing with the app engine itself. Not a lot of material there. And, although it's helpful to some degree, it isn't any better than Google's own documentation on the product.

All in all, I found this to be a very disappointing book.