Foundations of Python Network Programming (Foundations)

Python Cookbook

Learning Python, Second Edition

Python in a Nutshell

Text Processing in Python

Python

Python Web Programming

Format: Paperback
Author: Steve Holden
ReleaseDate: 08 January, 2002
Publisher: Sams
Rating:

Great book somewhat let down by loss of focus at the end.
co. After reading positive reviews here and Amazon.uk decided to buy the book.

There is not much to add to positive points noted by previous reviews but they have omitted one important thing about this book. Up until Chapter 17 the content remains concise, sample code is well documented and explained but chapters 17 and 18 are let downs unless you are willing to do some research on the net and dig out original book code (now residing at holdenweb. com)

Chapter 17 that introduces AWeFUL; An Object-Oriented Web Site Framework starts well and what little is written on it, is well written, however, chapter only contains small parts of the framework and at the end of it, you won't have a working site. Several critical modules are omitted and despite of showing final site running on framework, all you'll be seeing are exactly that: the images from author's screen.

Similar problems to Chapter 17 are present on Chapter 18, the sample site is dependant on several modules not included in the book and unless you download book code from author's website (and couple addtional Python modules as well), you won't be able to build a working website.

On the whole, seems to me that the author has either lost his patience, was running out of space or has tried to write about something he hadn't planned properly and didn't finish on time for book.

Also slight disappointment was, especially, exclusion of MySQL from database usage examples. Already 2002 MySQL was widely used as a database backend for websites and excluding it from a book that deals with web development, it is somewhat disappointing.

Above flaws may sound worse than they really are, just something you should be aware of if you decide to buy this book and expect high standards throughout.

Too much background information
As the book progresses there are several chapters which do not relate to Python much at all. The start of the book provides a good start to understanding python. I was wanting to find out about how you connect to a database from python, but there were at least two chapters on data structures and database concepts that were general, and not really related to connecting to and using a database. A similar problem exists with the intoduction to TCP/IP. Essentially the book takes us through a very low level explanation from the ground up of how TCP/IP and HTTP work. A in depth knowlege of TCP/IP is not nessasarily important to programming a web application, as most of the actual implementation of TCP/IP can be hidden from the programmer. I also feel the author was struggling to find things to say, hence the bloat. Would have been better to have been a thinner book that kept to the subject at hand.

Trying to Learn Python? Check this book out!
I have used this book many times while writing Python code and it always remains close by! The visual reference is extremely helpful and effective during the learning process and the authors provide just enough written explanation without drowning the reader with a bunch of theory. This book will help anyone trying to learn the Python language. Can't think of a book I enjoyed or would recommend more!!.