The Mouse Vs. The Python

I recently received my copy of Real Python by Fletcher Heisler and just finished reading it. I got it as a bonus from a recent KickStarter campaign for the sequel to the book, Real Python for Web Development which is actually written by someone else. You can go to the book’s website to purchase the book and get access to the files that the book talks about. I’ll be reviewing revision 2.2, as that was what I got when I downloaded it a couple weeks ago. It appears that there’s been an update since then though. This is the first Python book I’ve ever read that focuses on Python 2.7.3, although it does mention some differences in Python 3 as it goes along.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: I got this book as part of the perks received from its sequel’s Kickstarter campaign.
• Why I finished it: The book had an engaging writing style
• I’d give it to: Programmers new to the Python language

If that intro interested you at all, feel free to join me after the jump to read the full review! (more…)

Last week, Matt Harrison sent me a copy of his latest Python eBook entitled Treading on Python Vol 2: Intermediate Python. I was intrigued since I rarely get to read Intermediate level Python books. In fact, I would say that some of the stuff that the author talks about goes into the advanced level. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good little book and if you have a moment, I’ll tell you why.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: As I mentioned, the fact that it was an intermediate level book made this a must-read for me.
• Why I finished it: Because the book proved to be very interesting.
• I’d give it to: Python programmers who have a good understanding of the basics but are looking to grow in their Python skills.

Now if you have a few more minutes, you can read my full review after the jump! (more…)

A couple months ago, I was contacted by John Rowland. He is the author of the brand new eBook Learn Python Quickly and he was contacting me about using one of my blog articles as the basis for one of his examples in his book. This one to be exact. Anyway, I told him I would review his book when it came out. Anyway, the book came out a couple weeks ago and here is my review. Note: I managed to snag a copy of this when it was free, which was the second day it was on sale, I think.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: I picked this one up because first I was intrigued that someone wanted to use one of my articles in their book and secondly, I got a sneak peak of a couple of the chapters and enjoyed the author’s writing style. Also, picking it up for free helped!
• Why I finished it: Because I wanted to review the book. I only read the main text though and only skimmed the rather extensive glossary / appendices.
• I’d give it to: New programmers, especially if they already had a little programming already, like a 101 class.

You can read my full review after the jump!

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I was approached by a representative from No Starch Press, the publisher of Python For Kids, to review their book. They provided me with a free dead tree copy and an eBook (PDF) version. This book appears to be in direct competition with Manning’s Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners by Sande. I’ll do a quick review and then you can read the more detailed review after the jump if you’re still interested.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: Primarily because I asked by the publisher to read it. However, I find these extreme beginner books interesting in their own right. I just didn’t want to spend my own money on it. It’s also a Python 3 book!
• Why I finished it: Actually, I didn’t finish it. The book is quite good, but it’s a beginner book and I ended up skimming it after I read about halfway through. But this is a well written book with an engaging writing style.
• I’d give it to: I would give this book to someone with kids in high school who are interested in programming in general or Python specifically.

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This week I bought Rick Copeland’s MongoDB with Python and Ming eBook from Amazon. It just came out in July 2012, so I figured I should check it out and see what all the fuss is with MongoDB and the whole NoSQL fad.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: Mainly because I’ve been interested in MongoDB for a while, the book was reasonably priced and I’ve read a little of his SQLAlchemy book. I think I may have even met the guy at PyCon a couple years ago too.
• Why I finished it: I almost always try to finish a book, especially if I’m going to review it. This one was hard though.
• I’d give it to: Someone who needed a quick text to get them up to speed on MongoDB and Ming

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Think Complexity by Allen Downey is written for someone in an intermediate college level class. It has examples of Python code and talks about algorithms a lot. Personally, I think it would probably be suitable as a 300 level class or higher just because of all the math and science related stuff.

The author goes all over the place and references Wikipedia often. Chapter 1 is about Complexity Science, which seems to lean towards the idea of “question everything” and “ask questions” without
really caring about the answers. Chapter 2 is about graphs, but not graphing in the regular sense. Instead, the author is referring to a “system that contains discrete, interconnected elements”, such as a map. Chapter 3 is about the analysis of algorithms and has some interesting mini-studies about search algorithms and hash tables.

Chapter 4 is all about Small World Graphs and contains lots of references to scientists like Watts, Strogatz and Dijkstra. Chapter 5 deals with Scale-Free Networks and various types of distributions thereof. Chapter 6 introduces the concepts of Cellular Automata and the various levels that Stephen Wolfram came up with. This topic is continued in Chapter 7 with the Game of Life idea. As you can see, the chapters vary wildly in content both from chapter to chapter and within the chapters themselves. They are also very short as most clock in at around 10 pages. Chapters 8-10 talk about such heady topics as Fractals, Fourier transforms, and Agent-Based Models. The last 4 chapters are case studies.

There isn’t a lot of Python code in this book. It’s mostly an “ideas” book that’s designed to make the reader think. Some of the code examples are interesting though. For example, the author teaches the reader how to construct an abstract class in Python very clearly and how to design it so that it cannot be instantiated but must be sub-classed and overridden instead. The author also has a couple of examples where he uses SciPy or NumPy to illustrate some of his ideas, so this book will probably appeal the most to scientific Python programmers. One nice plus is that the author does have some interesting exercises for students to try, although he doesn’t provide the solutions in the book. I think some of the solutions can be found on the book’s website though.

If you’re looking for a rather random book on science with a smattering of code (or you just want to learn a little bit about Complexity Science), then this book might be for you. On the other hand, if you’re hoping to learn about actual Python code in the scientific world, then you’re not going to learn much from this work. I know this is a little contradictory to the previous paragraph, but while there are some small examples of equations using NumPy and SciPy, the vast majority of the book is prose. In the end, the book is interesting to read, but probably won’t add a lot to your programming toolkit.

Note: I received this book free of charge from the publisher

I have read about web2py on several occasions, but never used it myself. Then a few weeks ago, a representative from Packt Publishing contacted me about reviewing their new cookbook about web2py. It’s written by seven authors, namely: Richard Gordon, Pablo Martin Mulone, Mariano Reingart, Bruno Cezar Rocha, Massimo Di Pierro, Michele Comitini and Jonathan Lundell. I have to admit that I wondered how you could have a coherent book with so many authors, but since it’s a cookbook, it works out pretty well. (more…)

I recently bought Modern Tkinter for Busy Python Developers by Mark Roseman from Amazon and just finished it yesterday. I think it’s pretty new, but I can’t find the release date for it now. Anyway, let’s get on with the review!

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: I bought this book because I’d been planning to dig into other Python GUI toolkits anyway and I haven’t seen a new Tkinter book since John Grayson’s Python and Tkinter Programming
• Why I finished it: It has a pretty good writing style, although the widgets chapters started to drag
• I’d give it to: Anyone wanting to make their Tkinter applications look more native or learn a little about Tkinters new theming system.

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After reviewing a couple ebooks last week, I’ve been getting asked to write reviews for several other authors. I even got an offer to write Python book reviews for another website too! Crazy. Anyway, Frederic Lepied contacted me today to review his eBook, which is available on Amazon. He sent it to me as an mobi (i.e. Kindle) file. I ended up using calibre to read it as I didn’t have Kindle software handy on the machine I was using. It’s super short at approximately 42 pages, so I read it in a single sitting. Anyway, let’s get on with the review!

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: Primarily because the author of the book asked me to. Yes, the author gave me a copy of the book to review.
• Why I finished it: The book was short and refreshing in the topics it covered
• I’d give it to: This book is for the beginner who wants to expand his skills and grow into intermediate Python programming

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I bought Matt Harrison’s book, Guide To: Learning Python Decorators this week to see if I could finally understand what the big deal was about decorators. I’ve decided to try reviewing this book using Doug Hellman’s method of doing a Quick Review and then a more formal in depth review for those of you hardy enough to want to read more.

Quick Review

• Why I picked it up: Because I wanted to learn about decorators and I also wanted to see how this book compared with Harrison’s other books.
• Why I finished it: Simply put, the book was short and I could read it in between other tasks I was doing. Also, some of Harrison’s insights about functions were really interesting.
• I’d give it to: An intermediate to advanced Python developer that needed to do meta-programming or had to understand functions and function generators

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