| CARVIEW |
Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition
By Alex Martelli
July 2006
Pages: 734
Series: In a Nutshell
ISBN 10: 0-596-10046-9 |
ISBN 13: 9780596100469
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)
Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This book will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.
Full Description
This book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many powerful but scantily documented modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up the most frequently needed information--not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions.
Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant object-oriented language with readable and maintainable syntax, that allows for easy integration with components in C, C++, Java, or C#, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and third-party extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn, yet powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers used to lack is a concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Python in a Nutshell fills this need.
Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition covers more than the language itself; it also deals with the most frequently used parts of the standard library, and the most popular and important third party extensions. Revised and expanded for Python 2.5, this book now contains the gory details of Python's new subprocess module and breaking news about Microsoft's new IronPython project. Our "Nutshell" format fits Python perfectly by presenting the highlights of the most important modules and functions in its standard library, which cover over 90% of your practical programming needs. This book includes:
- A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language
- An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python
- Coverage of iterators, generators, exceptions, modules, packages, strings, and regular expressions
- A quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions and key modules
- Reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter
- Information about extending and embedding Python
Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This book will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.
Praise for the First Edition:
"In a nutshell, Python in a Nutshell serves one
primary goal: to act as an immediately accessible goal for the Python
language. True, you can get most of the same core information that is
presented within the covers of this volume online, but this will
invariably be broken into multiple files, and in all likelihood lacking
the examples or the exact syntax description necessary to truly
understand a command."
--Richard Cobbett, Linux Format
"O'Reilly has several good books, of which Python in a
Nutshell by Alex Martelli is probably the best for giving you
some idea of what Python is about and how to do useful things with it."
--Jerry Pournelle, Byte Magazine
Featured customer reviews
Re: great update, but poor index, March 21 2008
Submitted by Julie Steele [Respond | View]
Thanks for your review of the book, and for bringing to our attention your experience with the index. We are aware that many readers rely heavily on Python in a Nutshell as an important reference and we wish to facilitate such use as best we can.
To that end, we will try to include an expanded index with the next reprint of the book; certainly you can expect to see one with the next edition.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us.
great update, but poor index, March 11 2008
The text of this book is wonderful. I used the first edition extensively and the second edition expands to cover new material as necessary.
Unfortunately, the size of the index has been greatly reduced in the second edition, from 66 pages in the first edition to 19 in the second. This makes the index close to useless. Try to look up "list comprehension", for instance. I have resorted to scanning the table of contents instead.
Great python reference..., February 18 2007
Python in a Nutshell is a excellent reference book, all python programmer must have one in the desk.
The online documentation for the python language is good, but some times is difficult to search for a feature of the language, in this book is easy to find anything about python.
This book complements perfectly the official library and language references, and covers almost everything you will ever need.
I Learn python with this book, but i only recommend the book for people with knowledge of other programming language, if you are new in programming and wants to learn python this book is not good for you (try Learning python by David Ascher and Mark Lutz), if you already have programming skills this is the perfect book for learn python.
The author explain the language in a very simple way with good examples, and don?t wast time explaining the basics of programming, the book starts with a introduction to the python language, in chapter 2 the author explain the installation of various python interpreters, from chapter 4 to 9 the author explain the core of the python language, in the rest of the book the author cover the python library and extensions modules, network and web programming with python and in the last section the author talk about the various ways of embedding and extending the python language, in my opinion the book is well written and very easy to read.
I highly recommend Python in a Nutshell, for all programmers who wants to start coding in python, and for all python programmers as a language reference.
upgrade program, August 11 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]
This is not so much a review as indication that I agrre fully with M Soulier that "O'Reilly should likely offer some kind of upgrade program to stay current in cases like this". I have one of the older books, which at the time was not cheap at all and have not yet decided whether I will want to face a new expense for a rapidly changing subject again.
An excellent reference, July 27 2006
I picked this up as it had great material on what had changed since I first got into Python with 1.5.2. Considering that the Zen of Python is barely being followed as the core language has feature upon feature heaped upon it, a book like this helps poor programmers simply wanting to use the language keep up with the changes.
I particularly like the section on the new object model, explaining the new __new__() method and summarizing the changes of subclassing object very nicely.
Still, Python changes so quickly that a book like this becomes stale very quickly. O'Reilly should likely offer some kind of upgrade program to stay current in cases like this.
Media reviews
"...a compact--but exceptionally comprehensive--guide...The content is presented in concise format but without skimping on discussions...Python in a Nutshell is not a definitive reference, but I doubt that anything more comprehensive will be found in a single text."
-- Major Keary, Book News
"...a fast paced and tightly written book...This book will complement the other extensive documentation that can be seen on the desks of Python programmers' whether novice, expert or professionals."
-- Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay, Desicritics.org
"A fine quick reference which should be on every Python programmer's desk."
-- James Cox, Midwest Book Review
Read all reviews
"...a compact--but exceptionally comprehensive--guide."
--Major Keary, Book News
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