Learning Python, 2nd Edition

£19.96

Mark Lutz and David Ascher; ISBN: 0-596-00281-5

Portable, powerful, and a breeze to use, Python is the popular open source object-oriented programming language used for both standalone programs and scripting applications. Python is considered easy to learn, but there's no quicker way to mastery of the language than learning from an expert teacher. The new edition of Learning Python puts you in the hands of two expert teachers, Mark Lutz and David Ascher, whose friendly, well-structured prose has guided many a programmer to proficiency with the language.

Learning Python, Second Edition offers programmers a comprehensive learning tool for Python and object-oriented programming. Thoroughly updated for the numerous language and class presentation changes that have taken place since the release of the first edition in 1999, this guide introduces the basic elements of the latest release of Python 2.3 and covers new features, such as list comprehensions, nested scopes, and iterators/generators.

Beyond language features, this edition of Learning Python also includes new context for less-experienced programmers, including fresh overviews of object-oriented programming and dynamic typing, new discussions of program launch and configuration options, new coverage of documentation sources, and more. There are also new use cases throughout to make the application of language features more concrete.

The first part of Learning Python gives programmers all the information they'll need to understand and construct programs in the Python language, including types, operators, statements, classes, functions, modules and exceptions. The authors then present more advanced material, showing how Python performs common tasks by offering real applications and the libraries available for those applications. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises that will test your Python skills and measure your understanding.

Learning Python, Second Edition is a self-paced book that allows readers to focus on the core Python language in depth. As you work through the book, you'll gain a deep and complete understanding of the Python language that will help you to understand the larger application-level examples that you'll encounter on your own. If you're interested in learning Python--and want to do so quickly and efficiently--then Learning Python, Second Edition is your best choice.

Programming Python, 2nd Edition

£31.16

Mark Lutz; ISBN: 0-596-00085-5

Programming Python focuses on advanced uses of the Python programming/scripting language, which has evolved from an emerging language of interest primarily to pioneers, to a widely accepted tool that traditional programmers use for real day-to-day development tasks. With Python, you can do almost anything you can do with C++; but Python is an interpreted language designed for rapid application development and deployment. Among other things, Python supports object-oriented programming; a remarkably simple, readable, and maintainable syntax; integration with C components; and a vast collection of pre-coded interfaces and utilities.

As Python has grown to embrace developers on a number of different platforms (Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac), companies have taken notice and are adopting Python for their products. It has shown up animating the latest Star Wars movie, serving up maps and directories on the Internet, guiding users through Linux installations, testing chips and boards, managing Internet discussion forums, scripting online games, and even scripting wireless products.

Programming Python is the most comprehensive resource for advanced Python programmers available today. Reviewed and endorsed by Python creator Guido van Rossum, who also provides the foreword, this book zeroes in on real-world Python applications. It's been updated for Python 2.0 and covers Internet scripting, systems programming, Tkinter GUIs, C integration domains, and new Python tools and applications. Among them: IDLE, JYthon, Active Scripting and COM extensions, Zope, PSP server pages, restricted execution mode, the HTMLgen and SWIG code generators, thread support, CGI and Internet protocol modules. Such applications are the heart and soul of this second edition.

Veteran O'Reilly author Mark Lutz has included a platform-neutral CD-ROM with book examples and various Python-related packages, including the full Python 2.0 source code distribution.

Python & XML

£22.80

Christopher A. Jones and Fred L. Drake, Jr.; ISBN: 0-596-00128-2

If you are a Python programmer who wants to incorporate XML into your skill set, this is the book for you. Python has attracted a wide variety of developers, who use it either as glue to connect critical programming tasks together, or as a complete cross-platform application development language. Yet, because it is object-oriented and has powerful text manipulation abilities, Python is an ideal language for manipulating XML.

Python & XML gives you a solid foundation for using these two languages together. Loaded with practical examples, this new volume highlights common application tasks, so that you can learn by doing. The book starts with the basics then quickly progresses to complex topics, like transforming XML with XSLT, querying XML with XPath, and working with XML dialects and validation. It also explores the more advanced issues: using Python with SOAP and distributed web services, and using Python to create scalable streams between distributed applications (like databases and web servers).

The book provides effective practical applications, while referencing many of the tools involved in XML processing and Python, and highlights cross-platform issues along with tasks relevant to enterprise computing. You will find ample coverage of XML flow analysis and details on ways in which you can transport XML through your network.

Whether you are using Python as an application language, or as an administrative or middleware scripting language, you are sure to benefit from this book. If you want to use Python to manipulate XML, this is your guide.

Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition

£5.56

Mark Lutz; ISBN: 0-596-00940-2

Python is optimized for quality, productivity, portability, and integration. Hundreds of thousands of Python developers around the world rely on Python for general-purpose tasks, Internet scripting, systems programming, user interfaces, and product customization. Available on all major computing platforms, including commercial versions of Unix, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, Python is portable, powerful and remarkable easy to use.

With its convenient, quick-reference format, Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition is the perfect on-the-job reference. More importantly, it's now been refreshed to cover the language's latest release, Python 2.4. For experienced Python developers, this book is a compact toolbox that delivers need-to-know information at the flip of a page. This third edition also includes an easy-lookup index to help developers find answers fast!

Python 2.4 is more than just optimization and library enhancements; it's also chock full of bug fixes and upgrades. And these changes are addressed in the Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition. New language features, new and upgraded built-ins, and new and upgraded modules and packages--they're all clarified in detail.

The Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition serves as the perfect companion to Learning Python and Programming Python.

Python Programming on Win32

£19.96

Mark Hammond and Andy Robinson; ISBN: 1-56592-621-8

Python is growing in popularity; based on download statistics, there are now over 450,000 people using Python, and more than 150,000 people using Python on Windows. Use of the language has been growing at about 40% per year since 1995, and there is every reason to believe that growth will continue.

Despite Python's increasing popularity on Windows, Python Programming on Win32 is the first book to demonstrate how to use it as a serious Windows development and administration tool. Unlike scripting on Unix, Windows scripting involves integrating a number of components, such as COM or the various mail and database APIs, with the Win32 programming interface. While experienced Windows C++ programmers can find their way through the various objects, most people need some guidance, and this book is it. It addresses all the basic technologies for common integration tasks on Windows, explaining both the Windows issues and the Python code you need to glue things together.

Topics include:

• The Python language and the PythonWin extensions

• Building a GUI with COM

• Adding a Macro language

• Distributing the application

• Client-side COM for output and data access

• Integration with mail and other internet protocols

• Managing users and drives

  This is a vital and unique book. Python Programming on Win32 is an excellent presentation of Windows application development and a solid illustration of how to use Python in the Windows environment.

Python Standard Library

£16.76

Fredrik Lundh; ISBN: 0-596-00096-0

Python Standard Library is an essential guide for serious Python programmers. Python is a modular language that imports most useful operations from the standard library (basic support modules; operating system interfaces; network protocols; file formats; data conversions; threads and processes; and data storage). You can't really program in Python without using it. In this book, author Fredrik Lundh, creator of the Python Imaging Library (PIL), delivers tested, accurate documentation of all the modules in the Python Standard Library, along with over 300 annotated example scripts using the modules.

Python Standard Library renders this valuable information in a clean, easy-to-read format, yet doesn't talk down to readers. This accurate and complete reference documentation is for the Python programmer who wants the facts and little else.

The book is based on the author's work with the Python newsgroup: he reviewed more than 2500 questions and answers to that newsgroup in order to make sure the book covered what Python users really wanted to know. An earlier version of this book has been available electronically for over a year, so the material has been tested by Python programmers in real-life applications.

This version of Python Standard Library covers all the new modules and related information for Python 2.0, the first new major release of Python in four years.

Python in a Nutshell

£19.96

Alex Martelli; ISBN: 0-596-00188-6

Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant language that offers object-oriented programming support, a readable, maintainable syntax, integration with C components, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn but powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers have lacked is one concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Now Python in a Nutshell fills this need.

In the tradition of O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, 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 modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up all 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.

Python in a Nutshell focuses on Python 2.2 (and all its point releases), currently the most stable and widespread Python release. This book includes:

• A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language itself
• An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python, covering both the classic and new-style object models
• Coverage of other core topics, including exceptions, modules, strings, and regular expressions
• A quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions, as well as the key modules in the Python standard library, including sys, os, time, thread, math, and socket, among many others
• Reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter
• Information about extending Python and embedding it into other applications

Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This latest addition to the best-selling "In a Nutshell" series will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.