Perl How to Program, Introducing CGI and Python (With CD-ROM)

Learning Python, Second Edition

Programming Python, Second Edition with CD

Python Cookbook

Python

Python How to Program (With CD-ROM)

Format: Paperback
Author: Harvey M. Deitel
ReleaseDate: 04 February, 2002
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Rating:

Aging but excellent book
It is still an excellent book and has more information than any other Python book on the market. This book on Python is very complete and at the time it was published was better than any other book on Python. I have used the book as my major reference work for several years. For non-GUI programming you will find most of your questions answered in this book. The general tips on structure and theory of programming are particularly useful for people who do not have a formal education and degree in computer science.

I hope the authors will come out with a new edition that heavily covers newer GUI options including wxPython.

If you are new to Python this book is your best option although there have been some changes in Python since this book was published. If you are familiar with Python it can still be a valuable resource for you. If you have a formal education in computer science and also know the peculiarities of Python then perhaps several more specialized books on particular facets of the language and its uses would be more appropriate for you.

GUI programming is not covered sufficiently in this book to eliminate your need for another book focused specifically on the GUI of your choice. I anxiously await the publication of the book on the wxPython GUI which has been delayed several times and is now due by March of 2006.

Better name it The Python Bible
This is a clear example. Bibles, in the profane sense of the word, are huge books filled with clutter and not meaningful structure, which attempt to cover way more than they should. It might be worth a quick look to a particular chapter, just to get a quick grasp of a particular area like XML, pygame, tkinter, etc. But definitely, this is not the book a beginner should use to learn the language, because as many said before, it seems to be a blind translation from their also crippled Java book. This reader, who cherished their C/C++ book couldn't be more dissappointed.

Disappointment


When I picked up Python How to Program, I expected the same incredible experience. I purchased Deitel & Deitel's C++ How to Program book long ago, and found it to be comprehensive and extrordinarily helpful. Instead, I was sorely disappointed by their complete lack of Pythonic thinking. It seems as if they took one of their other How to Program books and ran a code converter across it to migrate it to Python. As a previous reviewer pointed out, some of the examples are horrificly implemented, a clear case of programming in Python with the "C/C++ mentality. "

The examples seemed fun, but no amount of fun can compensate for the fact that this book teaches you nothing about how to truely be a Python programmer. Anyone can read the lexical syntax descriptions on the python. org website and code the examples in this book. It gives me the feeling that Harvey Deitel did not learn Python for any reason other than to write an expensive book about it, and has no idea how to actually use the language.