Pro Python (Expert's Voice in Open Source)
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Product Description
Product Description
You’ve learned the basics of Python, but how do you take your skills to the next stage? Even if you know enough to be productive, there are a number of features that can take you to the next level in Python. Pro Python explores concepts and features normally left to experimentation, allowing you to be even more productive and creative.
In addition to pure code concerns, Pro Python will develop your programming techniques and approaches, which will help make you a better Python programmer. Not only will this book help your code, it will also help you understand and interact with the many established Python communities, or even start your own.
- Take your Python knowledge and coding skills to the next level.
- Write clean, innovative code that will be respected among your peers.
- Make your code do more with introspection and metaprogramming.
- Design complete frameworks and libraries (two are included in the book!).
What you’ll learn
- Write strong Python code that will be respected in the Python community.
- Understand the reasons behind big design decisions in Python.
- Write programs that can reconfigure themselves in Python.
- Disguise your code as different types of objects in Python.
- Inspect just about any object in Python.
- Prepare your code for international audiences.
- Ensure code quality with rigorous testing.
Who this book is for
This book is for intermediate to advanced Python programmers who are looking to understand how and why Python works the way it does and how they can take their code to the next level.
Table of Contents
- Principles and Philosophy
- Advanced Basics
- Functions
- Classes
- Common Protocols
- Object Management
- Strings
- Documentation
- Testing
- Distribution
- Sheets: A CSV Framework
About the Author
Marty Alchin is a seasoned web developer, with prior work ranging from static content to highly dynamic web frameworks. Experience in several languages, both server-side and client-side, has led Marty to a willingness to work in any environment. He is primarily interested in server-side work using Python, preferably with the Django web framework.
Inside This Book
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3 reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Disappointment
15 Jan 2011
Format:Paperback
This book was a real disappointment.
I wouldn't have minded the preachy-ness of Chapter 1 if the rest of the original-material Chapters dealt with topics that concerned using Python in a professional context. Those chapters covered a random set of disjoint topics, and each topic was lacking in both motivation for the topic and, most important to a professional programmer, the basis for the Python behavior associated with the topic and the way to control the behavior.
The book was light. Here's an example of the lightness of this book's coverage: Generators, Lambdas, and Introspection were 'completely' covered in 5 pages. Here's an example of a topic not relevant to the professional programmer: Function Annotations were covered in so far as they could be used to extend type safety in Python. Hard to imagine selecting Python to build an app if you also thought Python wouldn't be reliable without also building a framework to enhance the language's builtin runtime type system.
The book finishes with 36 pages of cut-and-pasted PEP text. Why Python Enhancement Proposals authored by others was included in this $50 over-priced book baffles me.
steveofid
I wouldn't have minded the preachy-ness of Chapter 1 if the rest of the original-material Chapters dealt with topics that concerned using Python in a professional context. Those chapters covered a random set of disjoint topics, and each topic was lacking in both motivation for the topic and, most important to a professional programmer, the basis for the Python behavior associated with the topic and the way to control the behavior.
The book was light. Here's an example of the lightness of this book's coverage: Generators, Lambdas, and Introspection were 'completely' covered in 5 pages. Here's an example of a topic not relevant to the professional programmer: Function Annotations were covered in so far as they could be used to extend type safety in Python. Hard to imagine selecting Python to build an app if you also thought Python wouldn't be reliable without also building a framework to enhance the language's builtin runtime type system.
The book finishes with 36 pages of cut-and-pasted PEP text. Why Python Enhancement Proposals authored by others was included in this $50 over-priced book baffles me.
steveofid
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Great Book
21 July 2010
Format:Paperback
Pro Python, by Marty Allchin, is another book that tries to bring beginner and intermediate Python programmers up to the next level. This book is targeted towards people with a bit of familiarity with OOP in Python and basic control structures, but beyond that no more knowledge is really necessary. Allchin goes on to introduce a wide range of topics to the reader such as decorators, list comprehensions, generators, and annotations. This is only a brief look at what is covered in the first chunk of the book. Allchin also focuses some chapters on software distribution, testing, and documentation, and ends the book with a chapter focused on designing your own framework for parsing CSV files. He also focuses chapters on working with Strings and object management, as well as a basic chapter on functions and classes that will introduce more advanced concepts in these two areas.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is the first chapter "Principles and Philosophy" which focuses on the Pythonic way of writing code and managing a project. He covers about 20-25 concepts that will make you a better Python programmer. In addition, throughout the book Allchin always makes sure to mention when he is teaching something that has a syntactic difference between Python2 and Python3.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with previous Python experience that want's to step up to the next level. I also believe that this would be a great book for a person with programming experience in another language who wants to rapidly pick up Python. You might need to read a few resources online while working through the book, but overall, Allchin does such a great job of explaining the concepts he covers that it makes this book a great resource for any developer.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is the first chapter "Principles and Philosophy" which focuses on the Pythonic way of writing code and managing a project. He covers about 20-25 concepts that will make you a better Python programmer. In addition, throughout the book Allchin always makes sure to mention when he is teaching something that has a syntactic difference between Python2 and Python3.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with previous Python experience that want's to step up to the next level. I also believe that this would be a great book for a person with programming experience in another language who wants to rapidly pick up Python. You might need to read a few resources online while working through the book, but overall, Allchin does such a great job of explaining the concepts he covers that it makes this book a great resource for any developer.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Good overall, but lousy on Kindle
20 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The formatting on the Kindle edition of this book is terrible. There are no built-in chapter locations, etc, you can only jump to "Cover" or "Beginning" -- not even the table of contents or index. Footnotes appear just randomly plopped in the middle of the page, headings don't always appear, text is sometimes blacked over, etc etc etc. By and large it's still readable, but, waaaaaaay disappointing for a $25+ book, enough so to make me think twice about buying any Apress books on the Kindle in the future.
As far as the content, it's pretty solid, although not quite as good as the author's "Pro Django" book (which is excellent). The information on metaclasses and the like is pretty thick reading -- and, that's fair, as it all can get pretty weird; googling up David Mertz's writings on metaclasses and the like will help give an alternative take on some of the more esoteric bits.
Examples are primarily Python3, although always accompanied by Python2 alternatives.
All told, I'd be inclined to put the book around 3.5 stars, but the Kindle missteps (I've tried reading on an android phone, the Windows reader, and a Kindle 3 -- all of which have different quirks, and none display everything quite properly) are sufficiently frustrating, and limit the readability/navigability of the book severely enough, that I'm knocking it back to a two.
As far as the content, it's pretty solid, although not quite as good as the author's "Pro Django" book (which is excellent). The information on metaclasses and the like is pretty thick reading -- and, that's fair, as it all can get pretty weird; googling up David Mertz's writings on metaclasses and the like will help give an alternative take on some of the more esoteric bits.
Examples are primarily Python3, although always accompanied by Python2 alternatives.
All told, I'd be inclined to put the book around 3.5 stars, but the Kindle missteps (I've tried reading on an android phone, the Windows reader, and a Kindle 3 -- all of which have different quirks, and none display everything quite properly) are sufficiently frustrating, and limit the readability/navigability of the book severely enough, that I'm knocking it back to a two.
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