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Review of Programming Python by Mark Lutz
While this is not one of the greatest programming book I’ve ever read, it is a worthwhile read for those who are proficient in the basics of Python programming and want to take their knowledge of the language, it’s standard library, and it’s uses to the next level.
The author does a good job of presenting real-world applications of the language, explaining the problem and solution in a clear style and showing the ultimate python solution in clear code. However, be prepared to do some skimming and skipping. The book is 1600 pages long and part of the reason for this is the author’s verbose style. The other con for this book is the examples are showing some age. He presents a program for breaking up a file into small enough chunks to fit onto floppy disks. I haven’t had to do that in > 10 years. Further, he spends a lot of time presenting techniques for developing GUI applications, including a 400+ page, multi-chapter part of the book. In the days of web applications, that time would have been better spent on a quick intro to a modern day web app framework like Django.
If you are familiar with the basics of Python programming, and want to advance your skills, I recommend picking up Programming Python and working through it, your Python skills will be the better for it.
