Python in a Nutshell

by Alex Martelli, Anna Ravenscroft, Steve Holden

Book Overview

This book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many powerful but scantily documented modules. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596001886
• ISBN13: 9780596001889
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 654 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

From zero to Pythonista in less than 700 pages

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.

For the experienced Pythoneer wanting more detail

Python in a nutshell is an excellent reference for the experienced Python programmer. Alex Martelli does a wonderful job focusing on the book's goal of being a concise reference to important select portions of the Python language. His coverage of complex topics is a well balanced blend of written explanation and code examples. The book will be too advanced for newcomers to Python as well as beginning programmers, but for those looking to polish their Python skills this book is a real gem. Like the other Nutshell books from O'Reilly, Python in a Nutshell is valuable as a desk reference. It has an excellent index that makes finding topics easy. Experienced programmers will appreciate the lack of "fluff" as each topic is explained efficiently. Martelli goes into detail where it is needed most. For example the coverage of Python's exception mechanisms is quite thorough and includes an insightful section on error-checking strategies. However, the coverage of some topics may be considered too cursory. I will need to search for more on Python's struct module as the roughly 2 pages on module struct, without any examples, left me wondering just how and why I'd need this module. This was the exception, rather than the rule, though. Martelli doesn't try to cover too much in this book and topics deemed too remedial or too tangential are noted by references to further reading. This is why I consider Python in a Nutshell to be an excellent reference while designing and coding. Alex Martelli's writing style reflects what must be a very deep knowledge of the Python language. I get the feeling he knows Python at the most basic level which is reflected in his concise explanation of topics. Code examples are used sparingly throughout the book, mostly when including them enhances or augments the topic's explanation. I found the book filled with Pythonic gems: knowledgeable reflections on why one idiom is better implemented one way than another way. I found the section on Optimization especially enlightening. It contains Python specific optimization techniques I've not seen in other Python books, like why there are big-O performance gains achieved by avoiding string concatenation in preference to list operations or using operator % for string formatting. In general I was left feeling like I had a glimpse of how Python programming *should* be done. The preface of the book includes an explanation that the book is meant for those with prior Python experience and/or experience developing in other languages. There is little coverage of the Python basics, except for the first few chapters which will help bring the reader up to speed quickly. I found the lack of review of the basics a refreshing diversion from the remedial-first-section-with-huge-code-listings pattern found in so many other programming books. Alex Martelli is so good at explaining how and why Python works the way it does that profuse code examples would be a distraction anyway. However, I think I've been

Best Distillation of Python Anwhere

I bought this book after working through Learning Python by Lutz and Ascher, and reading sections of other books. It is now my #1 reference. The examples are few, but well chosen to do more than just demonstrate the language. They can show you why a particular syntax or technique is needed. Often I waste a lot of time learning something I don't really need, like lambda functions. By the time I have figured out that lambda functions are not some elegant new concept, just an awkward piece of syntax to do something simple, I've already spent too much time. Alternatively, I decide that something like metaclasses are a waste, and miss something really elegant and useful. Martelli's four pages on metaclasses capture better than anything I've read on the subject, exactly what metaclasses are good for and how they work. I think the dynamite combo for someone learning Python is both the Nutshell and the Learning book. I would read the Nutshell chapter first ( assuming you have a little background in programming ) then work problems in Learning Python until you are comfortable. Then re-read Nutshell, highlighting the key points you might need to re-learn in the midst of a rush project. Python in a nutshell is the best distillation of Python wisdom I have seen anywhere.

This book can even teach developers of the language!

I bought this book at the PyCon 2003 Python conference mainly to complete my Python book collection. I thought that since it was a Nutshell book and I already knew a ton about Python (I am an official developer on the language) that I wouldn't really pick up that much.I was wrong. Not only did I learn some new things, but Alex's wonderful way of presenting ideas helped clarify and present a different view of some vital concepts in Python that made them even easier to grasp than I had originally thought. There is a reason why he is called the Martellibot on comp.lang.python and the python-dev mailing list.I also have a friend who is a programmer who has read the first chapter or so of the book and has also found it a great way to learn Python.So whether you are a hardened Python programmer or just starting out (as long as you can already program), this book is definitely worth the money. And the Python Cookbook makes a great companion book to this to pick up a few tricks and get even more example code to learn from (especially from my contributed recipes to the book =).

A Classic Book

Python in a Nutshell, by Alex Martelli, 2003 O'Reilly, 636 pages.Perhaps the best book about Python ever written, this book is the perfect capstone to anyone's library of Pythonic books, and also the perfect introduction to Python for anyone well versed in other programming languages. For newbies to programming, this would still be a good second book after a good introductory book on Python, such as Learning Python by Mark Lutz.Written by my favorite author and Pythonista, Alex Martelli, this book manages to fill three roles in extremely pleasing fashion. First and foremost to me, it is a great read, straight through. Mr. Martelli's prose is always sparkling and always keeps the reader interested. No matter how many Python books you have read, you will learn some nuances from this book, and it is about the best review of the whole Pythonic subject matter that I can imagine. While there is absolutely no fluff whatsoever in these 636 pages, it still makes for rather easy reading because the explanations are so clearly thought out and explored as to lead one gently to understanding, without in any way being verbose. It is obvious that Alex Martelli took his time and put in sufficient thought, effort, and intellectual elbow-grease to make this work a classic for all time.Secondly, this book is the ultimate Pythonic reference book, the best fit to this role I have yet seen. You will keep this book in the most cherished spot on your book shelf, or else right at your side on your computer desk, because you can almost instantly find any topic on which you need to brush up, in the midst of a programminng project.Third, Python in a Nutshell is the most up-to-date book on Python (as of April 2003) and includes the best and most complete expositions yet on the new features introduced in Python 2.2 and 2.3. These topics are not only covered in depth, they are integrated into the text in their proper positions and relationships to the language as a whole. They are explained better here than I have seen anywhere else, so much so as to make them not only understandable to me (a duffer), but indeed so that they appear seamlessly Pythonic, as if they had been a part of the language since version 1.0. Topics explored in depth include new style classes, static methods, class methods, nested scopes, iterators, generators, and new style division. List comprehensions are made not only comprehesible but indeed intuitive.The book is surprisingly complete. It covers the core language as well as the most popular libraries and extension modules. It is difficult to choose any one portion of the book to highlight for extra praise, as all topics are treated so well. It is a complete book, the new definitive book about Python.Everything about this book speaks of quality. In addition to the top notch writing and editing, O'Reilly really did the right thing and published this book printed on the highest quality paper, paper so thin that the 636 pages are encompassed in a book muc