Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best generalist reference for the medium/advanced Python programmer
Comment: Nutshell is rather dry reading and provides very little of the usual user-friendly introductions to language features by solving simple problems.
Doesn't sound like that much of an endorsement, does it?
Nevertheless, of my 6 or 7 Python books, (2 or 3 are generalist, rather than specialized), this is the only one I use regularly after 9 yrs of using Python.
What Python in a Nutshell is really good at is showing you exactly what Python is capable of doing, feature by feature, in a thoroughly Pythonic way for the feature. With code and exact implication. For example, I know Python well but I am kinda lacking in metaclass comprehension. If I were to write some non-trivial meta-classes I would surely have its 3 or 4 pages open on my desk as I write code and skim through other internet postings. Those 3-4 pages have kinda made my brain shrivel every time I've looked at them, but they are the clearest overview I've seen of what is probably one of the hardest Python features to understand.
For normal, easy-to-understand Python, Nutshell really dissects the languages with new insight. The information is dense, because each word has its place and there is very little filler. That's why skimming it does not work for me, I just don't have the requisite sustained attention span.
Online docs? Again, this aims to distill Python's deeper implications. You won't find that in the basic online docs. You may find some equivalent, or perhaps better, explanations of specific features, say Python meta-classes, online by looking around in blogs and articles. But you will have to look around for a long while and you will likely encounter a bunch of less informative, or perhaps erroneous, stuff along the way.
Python has a very easy learning curve, but it also has a whole lot of layers if you want to use it in the most efficient/natural manner. This is the book you want to help you dig. The surface, introductory aspects of Python are not well served by this book. Normal reference books are already not ideal for learning languages/systems, but its nature makes Nutshell an even worse choice. In fact, unlike some other reviewers, I would not at all recommend getting it to get acquainted with Python, unless you truly are a gifted programmer.
Minor criticisms:
The index could be improved a bit. For example, built-in functions are not listed directly: even an experienced coder might not know to look for 'getattr' or 'zip' under builtins. 2nd edition: the logging module's coverage is a bit trivial/weak, as was that of decorators. Both are subjects that would have greatly benefited from more of Alex's insights.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Comment: This book is a great help in my everyday work. It is well written and full of detailed and clear explanations. I use it as a reference book to check out on the fly some details, but I recommend to read it also in an ordered manner, from the first page to the last. You will find clear and detailed explanations, and many suggestions to improve your code. The book is obviously technical, but not dry.
One could be tempted to think that a book like this one is not much useful, given the wealth of information freely available on the net (and the many useful posts by Alex Martelli himself). I find that this is not so: it is much less distracting searching something on this book than browsing the web, and the information is greatly structured.
In other words, my programs are better, my productivity has increased and I enjoy aspects of the python language which I didn't know enough before.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great python reference...
Comment: Python in a Nutshell is a excellent reference book, all python programmer must have one in the desk.
The online documentation for the python language is good, but some times is difficult to search for a feature of the language, in this book is easy to find anything about python.
This book complements perfectly the official library and language references, and covers almost everything you will ever need.
I Learn python with this book, but i only recommend the book for people with knowledge of other programming language, if you are new in programming and wants to learn python this book is not good for you (try Learning python by David Ascher and Mark Lutz), if you already have programming skills this is the perfect book for learn python.
The author explain the language in a very simple way with good examples, and don't wast time explaining the basics of programming, the book starts with a introduction to the python language, in chapter 2 the author explain the installation of various python interpreters, from chapter 4 to 9 the author explain the core of the python language, in the rest of the book the author cover the python library and extensions modules, network and web programming with python and in the last section the author talk about the various ways of embedding and extending the python language, in my opinion the book is well written and very easy to read.
I highly recommend Python in a Nutshell, for all programmers who wants to start coding in python, and for all python programmers as a language reference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fine quick reference which should be on every Python programmer's desk.
Comment: Alex Martelli's PYTHON IN A NUTSHELL: A DESKTOP QUICK REFERENCE offers Python programmers one-stop reference shopping for any quick consultation. Project details blend a quick tutorial on syntax and explanations of Python programming basics with coverage of exceptions, modules, strings and more for all Python's built-ins and key functions. A fine quick reference which should be on every Python programmer's desk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: From zero to Pythonista in less than 700 pages
Comment: First, one caveat: before reading this book, get a feeling for Python from the official tutorial, and some of the excellent tutorials and book available online (e.g., parts of "Dive into Python"). The greater the experience you have with other languages, the shorter the warm-up period. Then, buy this book. The chapters on the language description and OOP are models of clarity and brevity, in any book/reference and any language. All the other chapters are extremely useful too. This book complements perfectly the official library and language references, and covers almost everything you will ever need. It truly is the ideal reference book, and an incredible value for the money. I just hope that Alex Martelli will keep future editions below 700 pages while adding material on other GUI frameworks and PyPy.
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