Cameron Laird, Unix Review.com, Jan 7, 2003
The 'Python Cookbook' is superb.
Review
"I have no reservations recommending this book." - Tim Penhey, Cvu, February 2003
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
String handling, money, time, dates. Email, network sockets, cgi, xml. The staples of the cookbook, and Python Cookbook certainly has these. However, interspersed throughout are chapters that seem to have come from at least one other completely different book, a more discursive rumination on Python programming in general. Each chapter begins with a mini essay from a Python luminary, and the discussion of each recipe is fairly extensive.
If you do any scientific or engineering work, you'll know that Python is everywhere on the scientific desktop, providing bindings, scripting and GUI front ends for ancient Fortran/C monstrosities. Reflecting this interest, there is a strong emphasis on performance, with chapters devoted to algorithms and searching and sorting.
Elsewhere, those who have graduated from the plethora of beginner's books, but have been bemused by the complete lack of any intermediate texts, will be pleased to find chapters on Python shortcuts (getting the most out of sequences for the most part) and one on generators and iterators. Futher, there is a chapter on OOP the Python way (including examples of dynamic delegation and design patterns implementation), and one on metaclasses.
This is an extremely useful book, particularly the chapters on using Python's basic collections, which will furnish the reader with some essential idioms for efficient use. However, this, and the OOP chapters would have been better as a separate book. But in lieu of a Thinking in Python or Effective Python, you need this book if you want to do any serious development in Python.
As a cookbook, it has everything you will be expecting as a springboard for exploring the standard library, except for regular expressions. But these are so well covered in introductory books, that you won't need enormous coverage here. On the other hand, the material is presented in a fairly wordy manner, which makes for interesting reading, but for dipping in and out, makes finding things more difficult than it might be.
The other notable thing about Python Cookbook is that it has rather a large number of errors in it. You will want to check the O'Reilly website for the errata, especially if you don't have the most recent printing, rather than scratching your head over why the Singleton implementation doesn't work at all.
Nonetheless, this is a vital resource for Python 2.4 users; even if you don't think you need a traditional cookbook, there is an enormous amount of material here you can benefit from.
If you do any scientific or engineering work, you'll know that Python is everywhere on the scientific desktop, providing bindings, scripting and GUI front ends for ancient Fortran/C monstrosities. Reflecting this interest, there is a strong emphasis on performance, with chapters devoted to algorithms and searching and sorting.
Elsewhere, those who have graduated from the plethora of beginner's books, but have been bemused by the complete lack of any intermediate texts, will be pleased to find chapters on Python shortcuts (getting the most out of sequences for the most part) and one on generators and iterators. Futher, there is a chapter on OOP the Python way (including examples of dynamic delegation and design patterns implementation), and one on metaclasses.
This is an extremely useful book, particularly the chapters on using Python's basic collections, which will furnish the reader with some essential idioms for efficient use. However, this, and the OOP chapters would have been better as a separate book. But in lieu of a Thinking in Python or Effective Python, you need this book if you want to do any serious development in Python.
As a cookbook, it has everything you will be expecting as a springboard for exploring the standard library, except for regular expressions. But these are so well covered in introductory books, that you won't need enormous coverage here. On the other hand, the material is presented in a fairly wordy manner, which makes for interesting reading, but for dipping in and out, makes finding things more difficult than it might be.
The other notable thing about Python Cookbook is that it has rather a large number of errors in it. You will want to check the O'Reilly website for the errata, especially if you don't have the most recent printing, rather than scratching your head over why the Singleton implementation doesn't work at all.
Nonetheless, this is a vital resource for Python 2.4 users; even if you don't think you need a traditional cookbook, there is an enormous amount of material here you can benefit from.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
With cookbooks there is a danger of just reproducing in print a set of libraries that might have been more conveniently downloaded from a code repository. The "Python Cookbook" succeeds by concentrating on those idioms and techniques that can often be woven into various programs. In addition the accompanying commentaries usually do an excellent job of leaving the reader with a better understanding of the relevant issues rather than just being told "Do it this way". The value of the book is increased further by the well-written chapter introductions, which often yield deep insights into the Python way of doing things.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Try as I might, I can't help comparing this with the excellent `Perl Cookbook'.
Like its Perl counterpart, the Python Cookbook presents a series of short `recipes' for doing certain tasks quickly but, unlike the `Perl Cookbook' the Python text suffers from being excessively verbose in places.
Some of the recipes have been taken from the Perl Cookbook and `pythonised' (the authors state as much) and as such this book is very good for programmers who are migrating from Perl to Python - some of the recipe explanations are very good indeed. As a result of this, the Cookbook is also a good reference for those starting out with Python.
Combine the Cookbook with David Beazley's `Python Essential Reference' and you've got a winning combination.
Recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good reference for beginners.
The cookbook is a good reference for beginners for python as it presents solutions to problems in a convenient concentrated way.
Published 16 months ago by B. H. Madsen
Great book!
This book contains a lot of practical examples - to about all topics when you develop
python programs. Read more
python programs. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Maciej
great value for money
Got this book very cheap off amazon compared to other python books and pretty much has everything you need. Found the networking section most helpful.
Published 21 months ago by Sam S. Ung
Verbose, and could be better organised
I can't help but compare this book to Tom Christiansen's Perl Cookbook. It's not bad, but if you've ever used the Perl book, you're likely to be disappointed by this one. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by Frank T
An excellent resource
This book has earned a spot within arms reach of my computer.
An excellent source of facts, ideas, and inspiration - exactly what a cookbook should be.
Published on 25 Mar 2003 by P. E. Jacobs
A useful howto for those in need of a quick Python reference
I had been interested in learning python for a while before i actually started reading up on it.
I found that this book covered most of the topics i was looking for: i.e. Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2002
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