Customer Rating:  
Summary: this book sucks
Comment: Whenever I try to look something up about Python with this book, I end up using Google. this book is *horrible*. Lutz must be the ultimate geek nerd.
Instead of things in the table of contents like "strings", "regular expressions", "maps" - you have "Here's Looking at You, Kid!" or "Roses are red, violets are blue". Does this guy put flowers in his hair and dance barefoot in a park?
Instead of short examples, he starts writing a program; you have to study it and keep reading in order to keep up. A total disrespect for one's time.
The topics he presents are obscure, unnecessary, or have no consistent audience: What's OOP?; moving stacks to C modules; and endless discussion about GUIs.
This book has 1 readeeming quality: FIREWOOD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not useful
Comment: This is not a terrible book, but I don't know what it's good for. The code examples are too long. This reminds me of the old programming tomes from the days before CD-ROMs and the Internet, where all details had to be shown in print. There is just too much code. If you find a chapter that matches exactly what you are trying to accomplish, then maybe this book is good for you. It is vastly improved in readability over the first edition, but The Python Cookbook is a much smarter purchase (even though part of that is available online).
If you are just trying to learn Python, then Lutz's other book, Learning Python, is an excellent choice.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good enough I suppose
Comment: One thing I really wish O'Reilly would have made clear on the cover is the version of Python which was current at the time of publication. In this case, it's 2.4, so if you're looking for information on things like function decorators or the new generator abilities that 2.5 brought along, you're going to be as disappointed as I was.
Aside from the fact that some of the information is dated, it's still a good overview of practical solutions to realistic problems which can be solved in the language. It does tend to spend way too much time developing TkInter GUIs (which I do not personally care about one bit) and overusing the usual array of extremely unfunny Monty Python references (which I personally stopped caring about around 1984). If you cut out both of these things the book would probably require about half as much paper per copy, and it'd be a good deal more digestible to boot. There's also lots of Windows-specific silliness and the author continues to operate under the assumption that OS X does not exist (every mention of the Mac platform refers to information that hasn't been accurate for nearly 10 years at this point).
Customer Rating:
Summary: My biggest Python book, and my least used Python book
Comment: I bought this book a few years ago, and I think I have finally given up getting anything of use out of it. It has been with me through my entire Python learning experience, so you might think there would be a point at which I would have found it useful, even if that may not presently be the case. Unfortunately, I can say that this is easily the least useful Python book I own. In fact, out of the 6 or so Python books I own, it is the only one I wouldn't miss a bit.
It's just that it never seems to have anything even close to relevant for me, when I'm working on something. I can remember several times where I thought to myself, "What's a good way to solve this problem in Python?", or, "Where can I get some background on why Python does things this way?". Invariably I have either found the answer in one of my other Python books, or on the web. It's not that I haven't tried to like the book, in fact each time a problem comes up, I think "well ok if the book can shed some light on this for me, I'll consider it a value", and yet after 3 years... nothing.
Anyway, I don't want to be all negativity, so to anybody reading this, here are the other Python books I have gotten more value out of:
The Quick Python Book by Harms/McDonald (Old, and yet, still really valuable beginning book)
Python Essential Reference by Beazley (A great reference book)
Python Cookbook by Martelli et al (what Programming Python seems like it wants to be, but in half the size and twice the value)
Python Standard Library (I don't use this much, but it still has some value)
Python in a Nutshell (I think that's the name, it's at work right now. Another decent reference)
Finally, it pretty much goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. This is just my experience. I am sure this book has been right on the money for other readers, and that's great, but for me, I think I may be donating this behemoth to my local library soon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly High Level
Comment: Programming Python by Mark Lutz was surprisingly high level. Unlike the other O'Reilly "Programming ...." books (like Programming Perl) it gives only complex examples. The reader is assumed to have considerable experience with Python to begin with. In that perspective, it is an excellent book, but it will disappoint the newcomer who expects something starting from the from ground up.
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