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Python @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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Python Index - Python Book :
Python Web Programming
by Steve Holden Paperback: 691 pages Dimensions (in inches): 1.51 x 9.00 x 7.06 Publisher: New Riders Publishing ISBN: 0735710902; 1st edition (January 8, 2002) Python Web Programming is a practical introduction to building networked systems in the object-oriented framework of the Python language. It shows how to leverage the powerful Python libraries to build systems with less programming effort and easier maintenance. This book is primarily intended for experienced programmers who have used other languages (such as Perl, C or C++). It provides a high-level introduction to the language. Experience in building web-based systems is not required. Two chapters provide a concise introduction to the Python language, and there is extensive material on using the socket network API and the Python database API, as well as the many standard library modules. This practical material is underpinned by chapters which explain the technologies used. The book concludes by presenting a pure-Python web framework that can be used as the basis of the reader's own web applications. All code developed in the book will be available through the New Riders website, allowing readers to use code from the book in their own projects. About the Author: Steve Holden is a consultant, advising on system and network architectures and the design and implementation of programmed web systems for commercial clients. His client base includes GlobalPhone, an international telecommunications company, and the Prometric division of Thomson Learning. He was the technical lead on the major redesign of the National Science Foundation's web site in 1997. Steve also teaches classes on TCP/IP, UNIX security, web security, intranet technologies, and database topics for Learning Tree International. Steve has spent time on both sides of the "academic divide" and was an early researcher into the integration of text, graphics, and databases while teaching commercial computing topics at Manchester University. This research led Steve to form Desktop Connection Limited, the first UK reseller of Frame Technology's (now Adobe's) FrameMaker software. His customers included British Telecom, British Aerospace, British Gas, and Sun Microsystems. Steve was born and raised in the UK, and has traveled throughout Europe and the USA on teaching assignments. He now lives with his wife, Dorothy, in Fairfax, Virginia, where when not consulting, teaching, or writing, he enjoys looking for worthwhile American beers, entertaining friends and family, and reading science fiction. Customer Reviews Reviewer: Alexandre Fayolle from Paris, France This book covers a great deal more than Python Web Programming. You obviously get a nice view of the Python programming language, but also gain some good insights about python database API, as well as the network programming API available in python (both client and server, including the asynchronous socket module), not to mention XML processing. There are lots of "tricks" in this book, which clearly shows that the author has hands on experience on the topics covered, and has had to deal with Real World problems. In this perspective, I especially enjoyed the extensions proposed to help decoupling the SQL queries from the database backend used. This is a great book, and I present it as such to the people attending python courses at Logilab. Reviewer: Dave Swegen from Cambridge, UK This is an excellent book, which not only gives a useful introduction to Python, but also gives very good introduction to the topics of networking, databases, and anything and everything web-app related. And a pile of other stuff too. Each section starts from the assumption that the reader knows nothing about the topic, yet doesn't patronise, or paddle along at too slow a pace. There are a few things that bothered me about this book: It would have been really nice to have pointers to further information and articles for each topic, a better index and fewer references to language features that aren't actually explained anywhere (such as list comprehension). Apart from these smaller complaints this book is really very good. Perhaps the bast thing about it is that it explains how all the various technologies fit together. Well worth buying. Reviewer: Sheila King from L.A. County, California If you are going to be using Internet protocols, doing network programming, or web programming with Python, and these are new topics for you, I would highly recommend this book. The book starts with a brief overview of the Python language. The author's intention is that someone with a fairly extensive programming background in other languages would be able to pick up enough Python from this overview to be able to do the rest of the programming in the book. Perhaps so. I already know Python, but did find the summary in the front informative. I really like the fact that nearly every page has a code snippet on it. Examples are brief and to the point. The author explains each line of code and has a very direct and clear way of explaining things. I found the explanations easy to read and understand. After the brief Python Language overview, comes an overview of sockets and socket programming. I've been trying to learn a bit about the whole topic of sockets by searching the web and nothing I found on the web explained it as clearly as this book. I now appreciate the difference between TCP and UDP protocols and have an idea of the situations in which I would want to use each. If you want to learn low-level sockets, or how to write your own socket protocols, this is not the book you are looking for. This book basically assumes you will go with either TCP or UDP (and ignores the other types of sockets available in the Python socket library). However, these will probably suit most people's needs. The author then walks you through each of the Internet data-handling libraries in Python, such as the telnetlib, ftplib, poplib, smtplib and so on. He gives examples of working code for each library, showing first how to implement clients, and later on how to implement servers. If you want to work with these libraries, these explanations should be very helpful. Later in the book, Holden addresses using databases in Internet programming, using XML and writing your own web-application framework. I haven't yet had a chance to go through these chapters in detail (I've skimmed them only). But there is a LOT of stuff there. One thing the author does at the beginning of each new section, is give an overview of the topic (such as an overview of why you might want to use a database, how databases work, or why you might want to work with a web framework). For me, I really appreciate this type of overview. It helps give me a context for the new information, and helps me to make better sense of it. I read through some of the database chapters where he explains how the SQL query language works, and again, I have to say it is one of the best explanations I've read. (Most explanations I've read about SQL have just convinced me I wanted to steer clear of it.) Another nice thing, is how he sort of "works you up to" SQL. He starts out with regular Python code, and shows how parts of it are similar to working with an SQL database, and then eventually transitions into the full SQL language. He also addresses database design and efficiency. Overall, I'd say if you want a good overview of the topics mentioned here, want to understand the reasoning behind their use, and want to be able to understand good design and efficiency, then this book should really help you out. Reviewer: Steve from Charleston, SC This is one of the best overall web programming books I've seen. The author has a great ability to present highly technical information in a very straight forward, easy to understand manner. The book provides a wealth of information about Python as well as many other very important, and often overlooked, aspects of building web sites and programming. Eagerly look forward to seeing his next release. I hope it's soon and is as well written as this is! I'll definitely buy from him again! |
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