Programming Python | Mark Lutz | poorly organized introduction to python

book: Programming Python | Mark Lutz

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Programming Python

	Programming Python Mark Lutz, 1996 - 880 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Programming Python focuses on advanced uses of the Python programming/scripting language, which has evolved from an emerging language of interest primarily to pioneers, to a widely accepted tool that traditional programmers use for real day-to-day development tasks. With Python, you can do almost anything you can do with C++; but Python is an interpreted language designed for rapid application development and deployment. Among other things, Python supports object-oriented programming; a remarkably simple, readable, and maintainable syntax; integration with C components; and a vast collection of pre-coded interfaces and utilities. As Python has grown to embrace developers on a number of different platforms (Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac), companies have taken notice and are adopting Python for their products. It has shown up animating the latest Star Wars movie, serving up maps and directories on the Internet, guiding users through Linux installations, testing chips and boards, managing Internet discussion forums, scripting online games, and even scripting wireless products. Programming Python is the most comprehensive resource for advanced Python programmers available today. Reviewed and endorsed by Python creator Guido van Rossum, who also provides the foreword, this book zeroes in on real-world Python applications. It's been updated for Python 2.0 and covers Internet scripting, systems programming, Tkinter GUIs, C integration domains, and new Python tools and applications. Among them: IDLE, JYthon, Active Scripting and COM extensions, Zope, PSP server pages, restricted execution mode, the HTMLgen and SWIG code generators, thread support, CGI and Internet protocol modules. Such applications are the heart and soul of this second edition. Veteran O'Reilly author Mark Lutz has included a platform-neutral CD-ROM with book examples and various Python-related packages, including the full Python 2.0 source code distribution.

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poorly organized introduction to python

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 / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

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