Python Book Recommendations?

[Max Harper]

Hey all, I enjoyed the meeting the other night.

I'm looking for Python book recommendations. I'm an experienced
software developer, and I'm very comfortable in Python. What I'm
looking for is an "advanced" book that will help me adopt best
practices as I work and avoid poor practices (I'm not looking for a
reference guide or tutorials, which seem to be the focus of most
technical books).

Specifically, last year I read the fabulous "Effective Java"
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201310058), and I find myself referring to
it frequently when I code in Java. Is there a similar book in Python?
If not books, web sites?

Thanks,

Max

[Dan Frankowski]

Some suggestions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/947942/advanced-python-programming-book-like-effective-c

I have not tried them.

Dan

[Rohit Patnaik]

I rather liked Programming Python, myself.  I like the fact that it went through a number of real-world Python applications.  Its a really good way to learn the Python API.

--Rohit Patnaik

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Max Harper <maxh...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Jens Knutson]

I would recommend looking at "Expert Python Programming: Best
practices for designing, coding, and distributing your Python
software".

The publisher's page is here: http://www.packtpub.com/expert-python-programming/book
...and a sample chapter is here:
http://www.packtpub.com/files/expert-python-programming-sample-chapter-chapter-10-documenting-your-project.pdf

I haven't read it myself *yet*, but the reviews I've seen have put it
very next in line in my reading list. According to the majority of
those reviews, the book is far from perfect - lots of editing errors,
as the author's native tongue is not English - but as a whole, it's
valuable enough for what it does to be more than worthwhile.

Also, if you find some good suggestions elsewhere, report it back to
the list! I'd love to hear more about additional "best practices"
Python books!

Good luck,
Jens

[Andrew Carter]

You've probably already stumbled across this, but a great site to check out is:

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/

In addition to style guidelines / constraints, favoured programming techniques are discussed as well (for example, there is a great section on how you should do try / except programming).

Also google published http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/pyguide.html

which contains their thoughts on both style and what you should use from the language (e.g. take it easy on the fancy spices like metaclasses, etc).

It's pretty surface but does cover some of the 'I want to adopt best practices as I work and avoid poor practices' request.

Andrew

[Ben Beuchler]

For people who already know how to program and want to dive right in
without the "this is how loops work" nonsense, I always recommend
"Dive Into Python" by Mark Pilgrim. It's available online for free
and as a dead tree from Apress.

http://www.diveintopython.org/

-Ben

[Max Harper]

Thanks for all the feedback.

It looks like "Expert Python Programming" is what I'm looking for. It
is also recommended several times in related stack overflow threads.

Thanks for the other pointers, too. I had not seen the Google style
guide; it is succinct and useful.

Max


Some synthesis:

Books:

* Expert Python Programming.
http://www.packtpub.com/expert-python-programming/book Seems very
promising; I will check this out.

* Programming Python. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0596009259/ An
often-recommended reference.

* Python 3 Patterns and Idioms. (from a linked stack overflow thread)
http://bitbucket.org/BruceEckel/python-3-patterns-idioms/ This book
sounded promising, but looks like a dead project and is not useful in
its current form.

* Python Cookbook. (from a linked stack overflow thread)
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001674/ Large compilation of python
scripts. Recommended several times in stack overflow.

Web sites:

* http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/pyguide.html
Style guide + best practices.

* http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/ Style guide + best practices.

[Jens Knutson]

Awesome, thanks for the summary, Max - I'd never heard of Python 3 Patterns & Idioms before this.

Props to Andrew, too -- the Google style guide is indeed helpful.

-- "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." - Charles Kingsley