Python Cookbook

When I first met Alex Martelli, at Think3, he was one of the oldest and most experienced programmers of the company, a programmer who had already used most of the existing languages and had used these languages for the development of large and complex applications, the kind of projects that took months or years to complete. He knew Perl very, _very_ well and was used to rely on a robust, elegant and sophisticated language like C++ for the development of his applications (like Think3's Thinkdesign, a very complex 3D CAD program). He was writing a _lot_ of software, using a large array of different languages and tools. He was a well respected internal consultant at Think3, charged to solve difficult problems related to the software architecture of the program being developed. He was not an easy guy to impress with "yet another small language".

Despite this, Python has gained some room in his heart. I consider this fact as one of the most significant success of this elegant and powerfull language. To be completely honest, I'm not completely surprised by this ending.

Alex Martelli is the kind of scientist and professional that appreciate elegance, wherever he can see it. The taste for elegance, the ability to take pleasure in elegance, is an important part of the scientist and engineer personality. It is hard to be a really good software professional without having any kind of interest for elegance. When you need a simple tool that can face complex problems, you are asking for elegance. When you need a language that leave you with maintenable code, you are asking for elegance. When you want a single language for a wide array of applications, you are asking for elegance. Python can supply you with all the elegance you can ever ask for.

Alex's and David's book is a collection of good techniques that you can use to face a large set of problems with Python, from text transformation to GUI building to OpenGL grahics. You will not find here an introductory book, rather you will find a good second-reading book, the kind of book that can take you from the beginner level to the advanced. It is also the kind of book that can widen your knowledge of the Python world, showing you how this modern language can easily deal with problems that you usually face with C++ or the like.

If you are looking for an introductory book, buy "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz and David Ascher: it is the best one for this task. If you already know Python, buy this book and see how much you still do not know about it.


Perfect   October 15, 2002
23 out of 27 found this review helpful

This is one of those rare books that is all meat and no fat. It is a wonderful collection of relevant and useful solutions for many programming problems that you will face, and many that you probably just figured were too hard to solve. It is clearly laid out, so finding a needed solution is easy.

One of the most powerful benefits of owning this book is astonishing amount of knowledge you can pick up by browsing it. With almost every recipe I discovered either a new approach to doing something with Python, that was far more elegant than what I would have thought of, or something that I didn't even consider was possible. It covers a vast array of important topics, from text processing, threads, object-oriented programming, and much more.

In short buy this book, grab a drink, and have a nice long sit-down session with it. You'll love every page of it.


More of an encylopedia than a cookbook   August 15, 2002
Anthony Barker (Toronto)
26 out of 31 found this review helpful

This book is more like an encyclopedia than a cookbook - each section is introduced and written in a different style and different sections are stronger and more cohesive than others. Some sections are bursting at the hinges and others feel like they are incomplete (like the algorithms section).

The introductions to each chapter alone are worth the price of the book. Each introduction is written by a different Pythonic luminari, such as Fredrik Lundh, Tim Peters, Alex Martelli, Guido van Rossum and many others. These literary pieces are insightful, humorous and excellent.

I love python, it follows Albert Einstein's principle « Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler ». As such, this book plays a valuable addition to my library. However, if you are just starting out I would recommend getting a different book first.


Useful code samples, illuminating commentary, deep insights   October 14, 2002
Hamish Lawson (St Andrews, Scotland)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

With this kind of book, there is a danger of just reproducing in print a set of libraries that might have been more conveniently downloaded from a code repository. The "Python Cookbook" succeeds by concentrating on those idioms and techniques that can often be woven into various programs; in addition the accompanying commentaries usually do an excellent job of leaving the reader with a better understanding of the relevant issues. The value of the book is increased further by the well-written chapter introductions, which often yield deep insights into the Python way of doing things.


Superb collection of useful snippets   October 11, 2002
Edward K. Ream (Madison, WI United States)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

This book is a superbly edited collection of recipes that originally appeared online containing corrections and updates to the programs, much added discussion, many additional recipes, and fourteen extended chapter introductions. Each snippet is first briefly introduced, then completely and clearly discussed at length. The explanations are easy for beginners to understand, without being in the least condescending, while offering a huge feast for more experienced programmers.

This book has garnered rave reviews on comp.lang.python, the internet newsgroup devoted to Python. Some examples:

"The book is uniformly fantastic, congratulations to the authors!"

"I should note that this is not much like a usual Cookbook, which offers quick "do things this way" recipes to follow, almost blindly. Instead it offers deep discussions of various approaches and uses state-of-the-art techniques (e.g., list comprehensions) that may not be at all obvious to newcomers."

"I would recommend something like Learning Python as a first book. But then Python Cookbook is the second book to get, or the first for those who have been with the language a while."

"I am sure it will be a long time before I have exhausted it. As someone whose recipes were accepted for publication I can only say that, given all the changes and enhancements, the editors were generous in their credits."

"You could actually leave out the code, change the title to 'The Python Philosophy' and still have a really valuable book."

To which the reply was:

"Nowhere quite as valuable, in my humble opinion. It's not just the 200+ recipes, it's the numerous snippets that show very directly how to do one thing or another... then, sure, the text can also be quite helpful by showing what is going on, what's preferable under what conditions, and so on..."

The general consensus seems to be summed up in this posting:

"If you are serious about Python then get this book."

To which I replied:

"I couldn't agree more. I won't embarrass myself by telling all the things I learned in the first chapter. This really is an awe-inspiring book for the breadth of its coverage and the complete excellence of its presentation. The authors and especially the editors deserve the highest praise. Even when explaining the most elementary topics the editors manage to be interesting and even surprising. I have already turned down the corners dozens of pages that I want to study in detail. In short, this is just a superb job. It shows the power of a community of users enhanced by the editing of all-stars."

About the reviewer: Edward K. Ream has more than 30 years of programming experience and is the author of a major application written in 100% pure Python. While working on this project he has benefited greatly from the help given on comp.lang.python, often by the contributors and editors of the Python Cookbook.