Python Distilled (Developer's Library)

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self = cls. __new__( cls) # Make instance self. year = t. tm_year self. month = t. tm_mon self. day = t. tm_mday return self Chapter 2 introduces data and does it as if Python's data structures were like those in Java, or any other object-oriented language. You learn about sets, dictionaries and so on and something about iterables and sequences, but there's no real emphasis on the way Python makes use of mixins to create classes with the characteristics of the standard data types. In Python any class can be an iterable,not just lists, and this has nothing much to do with inheritance.

Chapter 1 is a lightning overview of Python from variables to objects. It doesn't go deep into anything - just presents the basic ideas. For example, in the section on functions it just tells you how to define a Python function as if it was any other language and doesn't mention the important fact that a function is an object. There is a later chapter dedicated to functions so this isn't unreasonable.

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Python Distilled: Expert Insight for Modern Python (3.6+) Development from the Author of Python Essential Reference

No programming language is complete without input and output methods, so chapter 9 covers these topics, including data encoding, command-line options, environment variables, file I/O and data serialization. Together with chapter 10, they also present some useful modules and functions from the Standard Library. It is not an extensive description, since the detailed documentation can easily be found online, nowadays. It’s more like a roadmap where you can find a brief description of some useful tools, that you can then go investigate more if you need them. Chapter 6 is about generators and it does give you the basics, but itfailstoemphasizethat generators are just another way to create aniterable. This doesn't matter if all you are interested in is using generators ascoroutines,say, but it does if you are thinking of implementing aniterableeither as a generator or using __next__. The way iterators developed from generators is briefly mentioned in a final section at the end of the chapter as a history lesson.

stars. Python Distilled has a perfectly suited title: This book is for experienced programmers who want to learn Python and need the Python programming language's core syntax, standard library, and Pythonic idioms. However, if you're a developer who wants to add Python to your toolbox, I recommend Python Distilled as one of the first books you should read. If you read this book very carefully you will notice that Python is different and has features that other languages don't have that could be useful to you. But in the main the book presents Python as if it was like Java or C++ and only then gets around to pointing out that how things actually work. For example, not emphasizing that a class is an object and how instances of the class make use of this object means that you can't really understand what is going on. This might not matter as long as you don't try and do anything out of the ordinary, but as soon as you move off from the well-beaten path, either intentionally or because you have an error to debug, then making sense of it is harder. I don't think this book brings out the unity of the overall approach Python brings to programming. It is mostly all there in the book somewhere, but you have to go looking for it. This book would be suitable for a beginner looking to improve their Python without moving too far outside of their comfort zone. Section 9.3, pg. 250. "The general format of the format specifier should be [fill][align][sign][0][width][,][.precision][type] where each part enclosed in [] is optional."

Table 1.6, pg. 10. Description for s.endswith(prefix [,start [,end]]) would be better if it used suffix instead Throughout, the book tends to present small examples and short code samples as it tries to explain the Python programming language itself. It does not cover the techniques and design or architectural patterns that are usually required in larger-scale projects. Once again, however, there are other (some of them much longer) books for that purpose. Conclusion Table 1.2, pg. 5. Description for round(a, [n]) should state that it rounds to the nearest multiple of 10 to the -nth power. If you're a complete beginner to programming, I'd recommend starting with a different book. But Python Distilled could easily be the second book on your list once you have some experience.Throughout the book, the book tends to present small examples and short code samples, as it tries to explain the python programming language itself. So, it does not cover the techniques and design or architectural patterns that are usually required in larger scale projects. But, once again, there are other (some of them much longer) books for that purpose. Conclusions Chapter 7 revisits class and here we learn about how to write a class definition, but not exactly how the class works, how methods are created and how inheritance works. We do find out some deeper things later on, but it isn't until the closing sections of the chapter that we discover that a class is an object and learn aboutmetaclass.Getting a clear idea of what is going on with class and instance is difficult. Rather than trying to cover every possible feature and quirk of a 30-year-old language, this pragmatic guide provides a concise narrative related to fundamental programming topics such as data abstraction, control flow, program structure, functions, objects, and modules-topics that form the foundation for Python projects of any size.