A Must Have for Python Fans
359319
This collection of odds, ends, and live performances will be appreciated mostly by die-hard Monty Python fans (like myself.) It contains on disc one "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" and the famous 1998 Aspen Reunion, and on disc 2 "Parrot Sketch Not Included" (hosted by Steve Martin) and the first German episode.
"Hollywood Bowl" is the Woodstock of Python concerts. It is extremely funny, and has some lesser known works like the Lecture in Comedy and several Neil Innes songs. The Aspen Reunion doesn't seem as spontaneous as it should, but has some interesting facts and some funny moments, and its great to see the elderly Pythons together on stage for the first time in many years. "Parrot Sketch Not Included" was released on video several years ago, and I watched it many times. Don't miss the very funny final segment (after the end credits). And the German show is...well, it has its moments.
DVD quality varies. The German show and Hollywood Bowl performance look grainy, the Aspen Reunion is broadcast quality, and "Parrot Sketch Not Included" generally looks a bit soft. The disc includes as special features some clips from the Flying Circus shows, "Pythonisms", and troupe filmographies.
2089597
Every programming book I've read had a full chapter on the history of computers, or something equally unrelated to the topic. This is not one of those books.

THIS book dives right in, and within a couple pages you are writing Python code that renders an actual result. Then within a few chapters you're introduced to a bunch of very useful and necessary concepts.

That's about as far as I've gotten, but it's a very refreshing approach to programming. I'm very pleased with my purchase.
4476019
It's hard to believe that the Python's work was over thirty years ago.  It's still so fresh, irreverant and funny.  Whenever we need comic relief, we put on a Python video and are never disappointed.  I honestly don't know how they did it.
1754845
If you have ever worked with Python, you have probably come across Python Module of the Week (PyMOTW) or virtualenvwrapper. Both are the work of Doug Hellmann. He has now brought to life The Python Standard Library By Example. If Python gives you the batteries, Hellmann gives you not only an instruction manual but the "on" switch to get you going right away.

The Python documentation is really great, but might leave some with a "some assembly required" feeling. The book's examples aim to be more complete, while still covering a serious breadth of the Standard Library. Do not expect to use all of the examples in your project without some modification, customization and expansion. After all, they are miniature projects in their own right.

By the Numbers:

It weighs in at a whopping 1300-something pages across 19 chapters. This translates roughly to a 2-inch print copy, or a 7.3 MB PDF. The accompanying source is 5.5 MB after unzipping and contains 113 example modules. The examples were tested with Python 2.7. Some of the examples would port to Python 3 easily, others not so much. Even before reading it, I was pretty impressed and somewhat reluctant. Some of those numbers might not be very meaningful as far as the book's usefulness, but it should give you a sense of how much material is covered. In my opinion, you get a lot for the price.

What I Thought:

I use Python as my primary language and I admit that I had never heard of some of the modules covered (e.g. anydbm, asyncchat, pyclbr, just to name a few). Not only that, the modules which I had previously used were probably in the minority and smaller still are the modules which I use regularly. This is in part due to changes made in Python 2.7 that I have not absorbed, but also because there are plenty of places for cool features to hide out if you are not looking for them. I can say that after being exposed to the material, I have a better understanding of some of the most common modules and have added a few others to my arsenal.

I would recommend this book to any serious Python programmer who wants to get the most of what Python has to offer. If you are just starting with Python, but comfortable with another language, you might pick up quite a bit from just a quick skim of everything.  You can then drill down into the parts which seem most applicable or interesting. However, if you are new to programming, this is probably not the book for you (as mentioned in the book's Introduction, and several other reviews I found).

I received an electronic review copy from the publisher in exchange for my review. The past two or three days my home internet has been down. This book was great to have around in a time of crisis. But due to the nature of the material I think I would personally make more use of it as a hard copy. I admit to not reading it cover to cover, but I cannot imagine anyone wanting to do so. That said, it is definitely a great addition to my library.
2705251
This book is in the middle of the top tier of 40 python books out there in terms of quality, but I'm giving it five stars because it is the best book for its audience -- people who have written over 1000 lines of the language and want to be conversant in it and understand its insides.

Python is blessed with more good books than some languages, but there are still holes. One big one is for a book that takes somebody who knows coding and can get python to work but hasn't taken the leap to thinking pythonically.  On one side of this gap are wonderful books such as O'Reilly's "Introducing Python", and the terrific books on the other side range from Luciano Ramalho's "Fluent Python" to Brett Slatkin's handy "Effective Python" or the career-starter books that clog the python book chain (happily) such as the Greenfields' "Two Scoops of Django" , Miller and Guido's  "Introduction to Machine Learning with Python", or  Percival's "Test Driven Development with Django and Python".

If you want to go from being able to write runnable python scripts to the beginning levels of being able to follow pycon tutorials, this is the book for you.  Ramalho's "Fluent Python"  is the best python book written overall, but you have to know what's in this book to read that one.  This is best book for that job.
2952212
Though I ended up with an older edition of this book, Python doesn't change all that considerably, and this author is definitely one of my absolute favorites. I'm a novice programmer trying to better understand the finer points of Python and programming in general, and David has a knack for explaining concepts in a way that I find extremely helpful.
2071209
This is a great way to learn python.  Many tutorials give you the building blocks for writing a useful program, but you never put the blocks together.  In this book, each chapter starts with a useful program.  In the rest of the chapter you learn what each part of the program does.  At the end you understand how it all works.

I found it to be very interesting and engaging.  It was never boring because you were always learning about a program that did something useful.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Python.
4762320
Python Programming for the beginner has been in my Python reference library since about 2006 or so when I first bought it in a local bookstore. I had to get the latest version, 3rd edition though just a few weeks ago, to have a reference that keeps up with evolution of Python, as a programming language.

A great book which includes everything the new Pythonista would need to know to get started using python. I especially like that it includes chapters on building and using custom databases, as well as chapters for GUI development, and Game Design as well.
416008
I'd like how I learnt from this book. I am a programmer and I want to explore more languages and python is one of my goal. The book never failed to introduce to me the basics of python languages and some of its core. Great read.
3254992
(This review is posted on behalf of my wife who had trouble with her amazon login.)  I recently changed my job. My new company uses Python as the main technology. Before starting this job, I didn't know Python at all. The project I worked on was on a tight schedule. Fortunately I got this book and I can immediately starting writing code in Python on the first day. The book is written in a very easy to read and understandable way. It covers almost everything you need to know about Python.  The "Core Tip", "Core Note" and "Core Style" sections are especially useful and helpful. They are not just for the Python beginner to develop good coding skills and habits.  They are also very valuable advice for the people who already know Python. If you want to learn Python quickly or if you want to expand your Python knowledge, this is a book for you.
4317940
Great purchase. A book worth the price, and a should have book for anyone using machine learning algorithms in python.
2485318
I was so undecided before bought this book, and then my sister recommended me it and I decided to buy it a few days ago, Python is an excellent prospect for many beginners. That's why I particularly loved Python programming success in a day: beginners guide. As it does exactly what it claims to. It makes something seemingly hard to understand simple for those looking to venture into this area. I enjoyed it.
4482144
Box art is amazing, all three movies are packed with their respective special features disc, and you get three awesome Monty Python movies to add to your collection.  I still have yet to see "The Meaning of Life", but that's really my fault.  I couldn't be happier with this purchase as a Monty Python fan.  If you don't own any of these movies, I recommend the buy.  Totally worth it to me.  ^_^
1378576
This is an exception introduction to Python. Information-rich yet very readable, and full of exercises that are both relevant and educational.

One of the more usable programming books I've read on any language/topic, and easily the best (I've found) on Python. Deserves to be better known.
2209583
This book achieves both of the things you would want a Python as a first language book to do - it engages the beginner with things they might actually want to do, but doesn't fail to introduce the deeper concepts that are needed to come to appreciate the beauty and elegance of Python.

Focusing on computing applications in the arts, this book uses a clever approach to enable the beginner to do really interesting stuff, very quickly. There are things in there that would be of interest to any photographer, not just a software beginner.

Yes, Photoshop is faster and easier, but it hasn't got this level of control! If you ever wanted to write your own Photoshop plugins, this book might be of interest just as an alternative way to get to design your own effects.

The end of the book gets carried away, trying to pack too much in. It tries to explain OOP and Swing, HTML, Javascript and SQL. I think this is too much to get into one book, and if you are working through the text yourself without any mentors you should probably not give yourself too much grief if you don't get all the way through it.

Admittedly, it is also pretty darned expensive.

Otherwise great stuff! This book fills a gaping hole in the Python literature. If you are an intelligent beginner, it is a great place to get started in getting real control over your computer!
1248570
A well rounded book on python, that starts off with basics  and takes you further in depth in making basic games. Very nice way to help me expand my python knowledge and how to use Pygame.
4575543
Ive been writing python code for a long time, but only recently for production code.  Dans book explains some of the less obvious python features in a way that is very easy to understand.  Ive read a lot of books on python over the years.  This may not be the only book you will want to get if you are serious about improving your python skills, but I suspect it will be one that will get used again and again.