Introducing Python: Modern Computing in Simple Packages 1st Edition

With the exception of K&R, It’s very rare to see “Learn Language X” books in people’s list of best/favorite programming books of all time. Bill Lubanovic’s “Introducing Python” has immediately vaulted into my top tier of programming books--and I’ve read too many to count and don’t give out this distinction easily.Being the geek that I am, I analyzed about 30 Python books through Amazon before deciding this book was the best match for where I was at. Looking at each book’s table of contents will tell you a lot. As a long time Ruby developer making the switch to Python, I noticed that almost all Python books were targeting either (1) new programmers (2) experienced Pythonistas or (3) folks who wanted to focus on only a particular aspect of the language, such as Data Science. I also wanted a book that was well reviewed and up-to-date (at least at the time of my December 2017 purchase).Not only was this book the right choice, it was such a good technical text in general that I had to write a review about it. Here are some of the characteristics I found worthy of note:1.) The book length is just right. Not too long and not too short. About 350 pages if you don’t count the appendices. Also a steal at under $20 at the time of this writing.2.) It starts from the very basics of Python but gets into some deep(ish) territory without either (1) making the assumption that you have instantly become an expert at some point in the middle of the book (too many technical texts fail here) or (2) going into rabbit holes that won’t be relevant for the type of Python developer that would be reading this book3.) The humor is perfect. It is not forced at all, not overdone and appears in just the right places.4.) Covers some interesting areas that most intro language books don’t touch upon: web programming, concurrency, networking (sockets!), why queueing systems are all the rage these days, NoSQL, and a full chapter of miscellany about being a Pythonista which covers things like IDEs, testing, debugging, timing code, conferences, websites of interest, linting, etc.5.) There are no code samples where the author is overcomplicating things unnecessarily. This is a failure of many technicals authors. Lubanovic makes most code snippets as simple as possible to demonstrate the concept he is teaching.And to be fair, my minor quibbles:1.) Redis gets quite a bit of coverage (relatively)2.) The section on decorators was the only section in the book where I read it and I couldn’t wrap my head around how it was working given the examples. Could just be me though.3.) I would have liked to see a little more coverage of unit testing (e.g. pytest?)Highly recommended. If you’re a somewhat experienced engineer looking to get up to speed on Python, look no further.

I'd agree with the comments made by others. It's really an excellent introduction to the language, done in a very modern way, which is to recognize that most coding is now done by gluing together modules. Because this book takes that approach, and uses the modules as a foil for teaching you how to code in a Pythonic way, you really learn two things at once.If you have any coding experience, and want to get up and running quickly, this is a great book, and even a good reference for later projects as they arise.And yes, "Learning Python" is really awful (both on its own terms, and in comparison to this). This is a MUCH better place to start. (What happened there anyway O'Reilly, I mean Learning Perl is THE book.BACKGROUND: I'm an experienced coder, having learned C and C++ years ago, giving them up when I learned Perl, and figured I'd never parse a file byte-by-byte ever again. I learned Ruby more recently, but got into some heavy math/statistics/image analysis, and saw that Python had the best supported science/math libraries by far. So I had to learn it. In spite of the fact that I think regular expressions are far harder in Python then they need to be, I see the advantages that other list. But most of all, most of all, it's about the available modules. CPAN is what made Perl unbeatable back in the day, and Python is the modern-day heir to that legacy. This book does a good job recognizing that and making you fluent in the language and it's highest profile modules at the same time. Highly recommended. (And no, you can't borrow my copy).

This book is probably best for someone who has either programmed in other languages or has previously read a beginner book on python. This was my third on python and I found that it filled out the prior gaps in my knowledge while reinforcing the basics.The pacing appears designed for serious learners who will either understand the material the first time around or take the time to search for more extensive answers online. The pacing and conciseness of the book may be excessive for true beginners. This book could also be fairly useful as a reference because most of the chapters can stand on their own, although I found it best to work through in the order presented.The problems provide effective drills without being excessively difficult. The author was good at explaining the contexts in which certain aspects of the language may be useful. He was also better than most technical authors about not assuming, by mistake or otherwise, a prior understanding of details or terms of art.

An excellent book for beginners. I've read other intro books, but the opening chapters of this book gave me the most comprehensive review of Python syntax, methods and structures, delivered with wit. Examples range from simple to quite complex. For me, an old Fortran programmer, the material on object-oriented programming needs to be simplified and expanded (probably not a problem for those with C experience). That said, the topics covered would also be very useful to a more advanced programmer.I recommend the book to readers who might want an overview of the many capabilities of Python and those who want to get up to speed quickly. Python is free and there is a lot of support on the web but unfortunately, there is no free compiler, so programs cannot be shared unless the second party also installs Python. For example, I wanted to do some analyses on data downloaded from Excel as .CSV files. The programs I wrote were used only by me on a single computer. Lubanovic's book was very helpful as a reference.