No comments about Python for Unix and Linux System Administration.

5 comments about Python For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. If you have programmed at the level of Visual Basic, or perhaps Excel macros, then this book is perfect for you. It's a pleasure to read -- with its variety of visual aids. In many books, the graphics just clutter the page. Not here. The concepts pop out at you and burn themselves into your memory.
   
   I doubt you can become productive in Python any faster than with this book.



2. From the Dummies title I expected that this was for beginners. The book itself claims that it is suitable for someone who wrote a few Basic programs at one time. I wrote a few Basic programs and it is not. An example: On page 20 it starts a discussion that turns on objects. This is a somewhat advanced topic by most accounts, but the chapter that deals with objects is hundreds of pages later.
   This book that claims that it is suitable for beginners, claims a few pages later that it is more of a reference, really. But it is very poorly organized, as the previous discussion illustrates. Strange stuff like the explaination of Scheme as a functional programming language: In Python for Dummies this is explained as using functions to write programs. Really! It;s that bad.
   The only audience I can imagine for this book is people who know something about Python, but prefer reading about it to programming. Reading it, they could pick up a fe pieces of information they hadn't seen before.



3. This is a pretty decent book for those with some previous programming experience, but is definitely not for beginners (or Dummies) to programming. The first 2 chapters contain terms and concepts that assume an existing knowledge base.



4. I agree with some of the reviewers here, it is definitely disappointing to see a bad seed among the good "... for dummies" series. I have previous experience with programming languages, although this is not my everyday task. I got interested in Python and wanted the book to guide me through the basics. After reading the first 7-8 chapters I started asking myself whether I missed something in the previous ones, as I lost track (and interest) in the book.
   I found the examples parsed in the chapters rather useless, and not practical. Since, I have found several useful on-line tutorials on www.python.org, where the user is taken through the chapters in a gradual, progressive way. The examples and exercises in a beginner's book should be based on what is learned in the previous chapters, giving the reader the idea that what is learned is put in practice, thus easily assimilated.
   
   I don't recommend this book for a complete novice, as she/he will lose interest in Python programming very easily! This book has the advantage of presenting the main and most important features of the Python programming language, but it sues a more advanced audience.
   
   The low rating is indeed due to the non adequacy of the book for beginners and for not following the good standards of the "...for dummies" successful series.
   
   Sacha



5. I have read a couple dummies books and usually they are more of an introductory baby steps type of book. This was not the case. It feels they tried to offer more and it ended up coming across as babble.
   
   I found myself getting bored at times. I can program in Perl and I started this book knowing I might be above the topics at times. I was looking to this book as an introduction to Python. The examples given were not as good as I would have liked. Overall, I don't think the presentation of topics were not good. For example, I thought two chapters on OOP was overkill for this type of book and probably should have been reduced to a chapter on the bigger things you may do.
   
   I mention the examples again as I usually like to enter them for the fun of it. However, they really don't give a good feeling for the power of python.
   
   I did like the spider example but it was lightly discussed.
   
   The last two chapters I think were most useful for the links and other modules that were mentioned.
   
   I should say glob was mentioned and I think the book should have talked about it more then just a passing mention.
   
   So will I suggest this book? Probably not. It really depends on the person. I think it has to be a person that is between beginner and somebody who knows how to program.

No comments about Python: Create - Modify - Reuse.

5 comments about Foundations of Python Network Programming (Foundations).

1. Apress has two books on Python that I really like. This one and "Dive Into Python". The thing I like about this book is it delves into some deep concepts, like client/server code, but does so in such a way that even people new to Python should have no problem understanding it.
   
   I have been a programmer for about 15 years, and made heavy use of Python for the last 5 or 6 years. My brother is new to programming. Both of us found this book to be very useful and easy to understand. I recommend it to programmers of all levels.



2. This is a well presented, well paced introduction to network programming in Python. He presents programs both as interactive sessions (follow along in the comfort of home) and as scripts (programs) available to download from his web site at Apress.
   
   It serves as a good, general purpose, introduction to network programming as wall as a Python-specific network programming tutorial.
   
   I do, however, have some complaints. Although the author attempts to present information in a platform-neutral manner, it is obvious that he is much more familiar with *nixes than with Windows. There are several minor factual errors in the Windows information he presents. [I have submitted these as error reports on the Apress web site.]
   
   Fortunately none of these disrupt the actual presentation. Experienced Windows programmers will be able to correct the mistakes on-the fly. As a minor example, Windows programmers know they can type "script.py" to run a python program even though Windows doesn't honor the #! line at the beginning of the script.
   
   My other complaint has to do with the use of PyDNS to discuss DNS issues. As far as I can tell PyDNS is dead, or at least it is dying. dnspython would have been a much better choice. However given that the book is three years old, I can't really fault the author for picking the wrong package -- it's happened to all of us at some point in our careers.
   
   And a truly minor quibble: he starts with an example of downloading a file using the gopher protocol. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a gopher server now days



3. It has everything you need to know about Networking Programming in Python. Easy to understand also. It can be made more detail and more advance for profesional use.



4. I'm giving this book 5 stars because I found it more useful than many books. There are some flaws, but overall I am happy that I own this book.
   
   This book uses a teach by example technique as discussed in other chapters. It is oriented towards application developers that find themselves in need of python networking rather than networking people that need python.
   
   The book is overall clearly written and the examples are generally interesting. The author shows an advanced understanding of most of the subject matter. Chapter strength is fairly variant. On the other hand, it's pretty likely that you do not have knowledge of all the topics in this book and will learn something interesting by reading it.
   
   Cons: The chapter on HTML tag matching felt really weak. They tried to treat HTML as a regular language by using state machines to match it, when it's clearly context-free, then he started to add a stack but he had already lost my interest as the examples got fairly unwieldy.



5. I have no background with Python and limited understanding of networking. So my comments are from a rookie. So here they are:
   
   1) Readable: technical enough but gets right to implementable examples. You can jump around in the book and find what you need with out having to read the whole thing.
   2) Applicable: I used examples from the book to gain an understanding of my Linux system and my home network.
   3) Python is free so use it.
   
   That is all.

5 comments about Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional).

1. There aren't many books on this subject so I was very happy when I found out that this book was in the works. I have a growing number of books published by Apress on my shelf and the author regularly posted to the Pygame mail list while working on this book.
   
   For the most part, Pygame a Python wrapper for SDL which is a great opensource media library. Most of my experience with SDL has been using it with C/C++ on GNU/Linux but Pygame is of interest for other reasons. For one, since it is a cross platform scripting language, set up and development time is cut down. Secondly, but related, is that as part of an educational program in NYC, I teach teachers and students various topics in multimedia and would like to move into gaming. In my opinion Pygame is perfect for that because it is powerful, fairly simple to learn and since it is cross-platform they will be able to run their programs on whatever platform they use at home.
   
   Like a previous reviewer said, I would not discourage anyone from purchasing this book.The book did, however, surprise me a bit in the choice of topics to cover in depth. I can imagine that as an author this is always a hard decision to make if you want to keep the book at a reasonable size.
   
   As some people have pointed out, the biggest surprise is that you don't actually work through creating a game (outside of a very simple text based game early on). So the editorial review above (bullet point two) should be changed.
   
   Personally, I'm not sure that this bothers so much since
   a. it would have lengthed the book and in many cases I don't feel that I learn that much from a lengthy example - it would really depend on how it is presented. A short 2D game with full code and documentation would have been nice.
   b. there are many full games with source code that you can download from the web and study.
   
   Still for those that are expecting full games or having each chapter introduce you to something that you add to a game that you develop while working through the book, this may be a deal breaker.
   
   
   On the other hand the writing is good, it's a fairly easy read, the principals apply to any game programming environment and there are several good surprises:
   
   1. Contrary to how some other reviewers feel, I think that the first two chapters introducing Python are great and not too long. In fact, they could likely be the best Python introduction that I've read. The author even does a quick coverage of object-oriented programming that is presented in a very practical manner.
   
   2. Vectors and the Game Objects Class
   As mentioned by others the author uses a library that you can download to handle vector calculations. Personally - I don't see this as a problem because prior to that he gives all the necessary info to build your own vector library. Further, if I am teaching game programming to students in a limited amount of time I might prefer to use a library like this knowing that if they are going to become serious game programmers they will at some point want to do all the math themselves.
   
   3. The chapter on AI was a pleasant surprise and is very good reading.
   
   4. 3D and PyOpenGL
   I wasn't expecting so much on this but enjoyed it since all of my prior Pygame experience was in 2D.
   
   In conclusion, if you have a chance, take a look at the book before purchasing and make your own decision - there is a sample chapter online too.



2. Here's my Pro/Con Opinions about this book:
   Pros:
   - Very easy to read.
   - Great examples that actually work
   - Chapters 1 & 2 give a great intro to python, so this would actually be a good book if you've never touched python before (but did have some programming experience)
   - Lots of info using pygame+opengl
   - A lot of examples use his gameobjects library, so a lot of the grunt-work coding is available to use already.
   
   Cons:
   - My biggest complaint is the lack of discussion on Sprites. Pygame is really a 2D library, and I think he left out a lot of very important information by not discussing how the Sprite class can be used.
   - Only cursory discussion Sound. If you're writing a game and just want the basic sound effects and/or background music, this is ok. However, if you want to do something really interesting with sound, you'll need to dig way beyond what this book offers.
   
   Overall, I think the book is worth getting unless you've already done
   a few significant projects using pygame. It's definately an Intro
   book, and it does a really good job giving the user an idea how to put
   a project together.



3. I wanted to write some simples game for my 3 yr. old son and looking for starting point as I don't know anything about Game programming. I am halfway done reading the book and so far I find this book very useful. The chapters are well laid out and I feel encourages to read page after next, unlike some 500 pages books that goes too far to make one sleep or loose interest. I am assuming some advance game programmer may expect more but a novice like me found this book very helpful and I found the information that I was looking. I think both me and my son will make some use of the money spend on the book



4. I have to say up front that I fit the "Novice" part of the title for this book, but if the book is really intended for such an audience then my review may be helpful for those in the same situation... What I am a Novice at is Python and Device driven programming. Although this is really a very good AND much needed book for the much under documented Pygame library, it missed an excellent opportunity to provide a novice level tutorial in "device driven" programming as supported by Pygame. Although it is possible to muddle through to an understanding (much as I did) by thinking through the implications of the example code, it leaves a lot to be desired to provide a working basis for a real "Novice". As an example, the need to know the function of the lines of code "while True:" combined with "pygame,display,update()" and what they mean about the code that lie between them is really crucial to getting any code using the library to work at all. Although this is addressed to some extent, I found quite a bit of experimentation (on my part) necessary to discover what code needed to be included in this loop and what did not... I hope Mr. McGugan , with his excellent writing skills and obvious enthusiasim for this kind of work, will soon provide us with a second edition that will provide us with more insight into how Pygame actually works, so we won't be programming by rote...



5. I bought this book for my son a few weeks ago. He likes the book and finds it helpful. But the book is falling apart at the binding. Very disappointing.

5 comments about Python Scripting for Computational Science (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering).

1. When I first got ahold of this book I had just finished learning all the gory details of good numerical codes. But when developing tests for simple cases I found that development went way too slow, so someone suggested I learn Python. This book provides a great demonstration of how python can supplement your existing codes. Either by organizing the tests, formatting output, or just adding pretty interfaces.
   
   This book contains a lot of the necessary extras that a scientist or engineer must do to get his work going or finished, which is too pedantic to be taught in most courses. It shows the power of Python over some other scripting languages for this purpose. It is definitely one of the best references on my book shelf.



2. Langtangen's emphasis here is on a reader who comes from a strong background in engineering or science, and is familiar with common computational ideas and has done some programming, but not necessarily in Python. The typical book on Python is aimed at a general programming reader, and the examples in such a book usually are quite elementary, from a computational viewpoint.
   
   The merit of Langtangen's book is that he gets into a lot of computational ideas. This is not a trivial book. Aspects like parsing data in files, connecting to local and remote hosts, and interacting with programs written in other languages are covered. For the latter, the important cases of Fortran and C programs are explained. The choices of these languages is deliberate. In science and engineering, they are the dominant languages for raw computation. And you are likely to have legacy code written in these, that you cannot abandon while using Python.



3. I have both the 2nd and 3rd edition of the book. The book does have 'unexciting academic LaTeX format' which another reviewer pointed out, as is also true that one should 'NOT expect a cookbook of high performance algorithm implementations'. Rather, I would say that this is the type of book that algorithm-intense cookbooks could be made from.
   
   The book has a lot to offer someone prepared to slosh through and dig in deep to the guts of the book. In this sense I found the book to lack a sense of conceptual significance, in that much of the mundane material of everyday programming receives the same level of detail that the more complex subjects do. So, it is often that I find myself skimming the trivial to find the core. Unfortunately, some of the core code elements and examples are compiled from a litany of trivialities and then it is necessary to go back and pick up the bits and pieces to make sense of where you are focusing on.
   
   More often than not, the maze of obfuscation does lead to an interesting 'ah ha' and that makes the book worthwhile to me. I think the update from 2nd to 3rd editions is warranted, but should also have included a proper parsing of the chaff and a little creativity in layout would go a long way to making this book true reading material and a ready-by-your-side reference.
   
   As it stands, I need to get in the right frame of mind to approach the book on even a casual encounter. But when I do, I am pleased with what I can take away from it and readily apply. The Tools and Examples section, which has high applicability to testing code, is very worthwhile but, again, is a little shaded as in viewing the forest from the trees.



4. If you want to learn Python, you should get it. Author do not build some "big" application (like "internet store software" or "bookstore software") from beginning to end, but rather give you a lot of practical examples of using python.
   
   It is not like in others book that examples include only learned functions/methods, but use topics from the rest of book (you have example on page 25 and note that explanation of this and that function you found on page 543). By that you have interesting examples to use in real-world problems, not only examples to explain freshly learned topic.
   In other books interesting examples of use python you found on page 3234, because only when author introduce all useful functions. In this book nice examples is even on first pages.
   
   
   You learn how to use numerical packages (numpy) in python, using some useful tricks on lists and arrays, introduce to using graphical interface in Tk.



5. Python Scripting for Computational Science is both an introduction to the Python language and an excellent reference for the intermediate developer. The approach taken by the author is to present the language in the form of tasks to be solved accompanied by example code. As expected for a book on scientific computing the modules covered in the examples emphasize numerical packages but this in no way detracts from the applicability to general Python enthusiast.
   
   What really makes this book more than just another Python introduction is that the author bridges the gap between complied and interpreted code. He demonstrates how the speed of execution of compiled code can be tied to the rapid pace at which scripts can be developed. Examples are provided for interfacing C, C++ and FORTRAN code with Python. Calls to precompiled applications are also covered and the examples were easily adapted to my favorite computational tools. One of the risks with doing numerical work in a scripting language is the possibility of straying into computationally intensive tasks to which interpreted code is not well suited . Latter chapters discuss how to identify these portions of your code and how to migrating these tasks to a compiled language.

5 comments about Dive Into Python.

1. Although this book is only a quick approach to python it makes the reader have a good background to continue learning python on itself.



2. nice examples to dive into and get a whole view of the language in very short time. but not recommended for newcomers in programming.



3. Pros:
   1) The book does what the title promises - dives head in.
   2) It introduces relatively wide range of topics in a readable manner.
   3) Uses reasonably sized code examples
   4) The writing is pretty clear and understandable
   5) Has practical tidbits occasionally comparing similar functionality against C, C++, Java and Perl. Nice.
   6) Provides links to further reading on a topic. Also very nice.
   
   Cons:
   1) Most topic discussions are a bit shallow and incomplete. For example it would be nice to present the reader with a comprehensive list of 'stuff' that may be done with a list, string, tuple, etc.
   2) While there is a chapter on optimization, Mark doesn't mention the python profiler. I could live with that but there is no mentioning of python debugger (pdb) and there is nothing in the book about logging, either. These should not be considered 'advanced topics' and left out as they are helpful tool in learning any language (my opinion).
   3) The book examples follow the 'Look at this cool yet obfuscated stuff I can do with Python - and oh, BTW, this is what it really means' methodology. While the follow-up discussions are reasonable, I would much more appreciate an explanation or at least mentioning of a concept before I get hit by a semi-cryptic line of code. On the other hand, the code is well annotated.
   4) Mark uses repetitive examples to illustrate a point. 'This is how to do something', followed by 'This is how to do it better', followed by 'This is how to do it really well'. While illustrative of potential pitfalls, bugs or code deficiencies, this kind of writing makes it impractical to use the book as a reference. Open the book at the wrong page and follow the less than perfect example. Not a good thing. And boring - if I wanted to see it done the wrong way I'd use perl ;-).
   5) Mark's statement that C++ virtual methods: 'confuse the hell out of me' (pg. 84) is rather amusing. I'd suggest to skip the amusement as it doesn't give a casual reader a whole lot of confidence in author's understanding of method overloading. Humor me some other ways.
   However, this book is about Python, not C++, so I don't hold it against the author :)
   
   In conclusion:
   Quite reasonable book for the money, gets you a pretty good jumpstart. Coming from C/C++ background, general programming concepts are not totally lost on me and there are enough practical differences between Python and C++ that this book was worth the read.
   
   The chapters on HTML, XML and SOAP were the primary reason I bought this book. Again, while not covered in depth, I got enough from them to get started with a small practical application.
   
   If you're serious about developing any kind of meaningful code this is a reasonable start but you'll need to dig deeper.
   
   I recently opted for buying Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming as it covers more topics in greater depth (it's the details that matter a lot) in quite comprehensive manner while still very understandable by a novice programmer.
   
   O'Reilley's Python Cookbook by Alex Martelli et. al is also a very good complementary reading exposing quite imaginative ways of using even some very basic capabilities of Python.



4. This book should have been called "Wade Into the Shallow End of Python." Virtually every section is punctuated by a statement to the effect of "I don't really understand how this crazy stuff works, either, so here's some other books you can read instead of this one if you want to learn anything" and it's probably the best advice the author has to offer. Numerous features of the language are glanced over or even omitted entirely just so we can enjoy three chapters worth of pointless RSS feed parsing examples and repeated exposure to a textual rendering of the author's extensive collection of obscure techno music. Rudimentary features of regular expressions are also over-explained ad infinitum despite the fact that this book is meant to target developers with experience in other programming languages. If they really needed to pad the content that much then why not cover things like metaclasses or the new generator features or pretty much anything useful?
   
   It gets an extra star simply because it contains no painful-to-read Monty Python references which stopped being funny around 1985; something the official documentation cannot claim.



5. I have experience with Fortran, some C/C++, but mostly IDL, a commercial scripting language for scientific visualization. I'm interested in Python because its an open source scripting language.
   
   At the very least, skim the free online version before buying it. I got a copy from a friend and found it tough going. The first chapter 'dives' right into dictionaries and I didn't find it clear at all. Didn't make it past the first 2 or 3 chapters before looking for something else. The visual layout could also be better.

No comments about Foundations of Agile Python Development (Expert's Voice in Open Source).

5 comments about Core Python Programming (2nd Edition) (Core Series).

1. Fellow Programmers,
   I am new to Python and found this book to be a comprehensive source of information. I started off with Java a few years ago in my spare time, however; Core Python is an excellent book for an understanding concepts in OOP for both languages. I thoroughly enjoy the book and the Python Language itself. My only criticism is that most of the programs are short, but from cover to cover; the reader will walk away with a rock solid foundation in python programming.
   
   L.R. Young



2. This book has small snippets of insight, unfortunately they are scattered across over 1000 pages. The book seems to take a general format of: 1) "Here is an idea or concept - not sure why I introduced it now;" 2) "The concept just seems to have a logical grouping with these other concepts;" 3) "But we will not go into the concept or the other concepts now;" 5) "We will save them for another section that will then refer you back to this section as a reference for those concepts;" 6) "By the way, did you know that C, C++, Java, Java Script have this vague similarity of implementation but use this code" 7) "Don't bother that this aside has no value for understanding python (if you are literate in other languages, you will get the similarities and differences - if you are not, then why bother introducing irrelevant material)."
   
   In essence, the book seems to say - I have 1000+ pages to write in, therefore organization and relevancy are secondary to filling them up. Also, there tends to be numerous mistakes in the prose as well as in the code. A trip to the book's website shows that, apparently, it took the author three tries (plus a .diff file) to get the MakeTextFile script correct. There are better books out there (along with the python online documentation).



3. I'm relatively new to Python, having programmed in 'C' and Pascal for many years, and have found this book to be a very good first book to read. As a programmer relatively new to Python I've found that it provides me with very good coverage of the language and its most popular modules. It is not a reference book like "Python In A Nutshell", which I would also recommend. It won't be sufficient if you plan on writing complex GUI applications using wxPython, but there's another good book available for that. Thanks to this book and a couple of others I've been able to produce several useful Python applications. If you're a programmer new to Python, I would recommend this book as one of the first you read.



4. I recently changed my job. My new company uses Python as the main technology. Before starting this job, I didn't know Python at all. The project I worked on was on a tight schedule. Fortunately I got this book and I can immediately starting writing code in Python on the first day. The book is written in a very easy to read and understandable way. It covers almost everything you need to know about Python. The "Core Tip", "Core Note" and "Core Style" sections are especially useful and helpful. They are not just for the Python beginner to develop good coding skills and habits. They are also very valuable advice for the people who already know Python. If you want to learn Python quickly or if you want to expand your Python knowledge, this is a book for you.



5. I got this book because of its many positive reviews, but I'm not happy with it.
   
   I'm a professional programmer. C++ is my main language, but I know C, Java, Perl, Smalltalk. I have used Python a fair amount in the past; I wanted to go through a Python book because I'm starting a new project in Python and the language has changed since I last used it.
   
   My main criticism of this book (2nd edition, 3rd printing) is its sloppy production. It is loaded with typos, broken code, and other errors. I'm surprised that most other reviewers didn't comment on this fact. The author knows about many of these errors and has corrections posted on the web, where he airily excuses the book's errors as being "due to lack of time or priority during the highly-compressed editing phase." If he or the publisher really cared, many of these errors would have been corrected by the third printing. (Many would not require resetting even a full line of type.)
   
   As other reviewers have said, Chun's writing is rather disorganized and conversational. That's not to my taste, but evidently it suits lots of people. For the length of the book, the depth is not great.
   
   Some reviewers say that this is the best book they have seen for beginning programmers. Maybe they are not familiar with Kernighan and Ritchie's classic, _The C Programming Language_. That book, in my opinion, is the standard of excellence.
   
   Overall I prefer Beazley's _Python Essential Reference_ 3rd edition to Chun's book. The Reference is terse and maybe not suitable for a novice, but it is thorough, accurate, well organized, and carefully produced. Chun does provide exercises after each chapter; that is the book's main positive feature, in my opinion.

5 comments about Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt (Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development).

1. Advanced programmer libraries and any versed in Python in particular will find RAPID GUI PROGRAMMING WITH PYTHON AND QT an invaluable guide, covering the mechanics of building GUI applications that run on all major operating systems. From custom widgets to advanced model and view programming, this book's depth and technical detail lend to any serious programming collection.



2. I've been programming in python for about 2 years, and programming in PyQt for about a year. But I haven't had time to really delve into how things work, and how they relate to each other. The on-line documentation falls short in this area, so this book is a great help! I learned some new stuff about Python in the first few chapters, but the biggest help was the explanations of how PyQt works, and how to use it to the best advantage.



3. This book is perfect for someone new to the world of GUI programming. It provides a detailed walk-through of generating a useful and robust user interface. Providing a firm foundation in python and OOP and then adding both knowledge of Qt and a best practices approach to GUI programming.
   If you aren't new to programming and GUI creation than this book is still a very useful source of information if a bit hard to get through. The feature this book lacks which many love in O'Reilly books is a component by component breakdown of features with good examples. This is not really a flaw as this book is a ground up approach, however if you are looking for something akin to PyQT In a Nutshell you won't find it here. That being said, it is the best book on PyQt4 out there, and even if there were many other PyQt4 book to choose from this is still an excellent learning tool.
   
   In short this is an excellent book for people new to Python and Qt, especially those without GUI experience. Those with more experience may be bothered by the lack of a more modularized approach to learning PyQt4 as this book follows a more chronological approach of the design process. It's not quick and dirty, but it is robust and well written.



4. Finally i made possible to buy this Book, when I'm just starting to develop in PyQt (http://opencoffee.lnxteam.org) even having basic Knowledge of Python, this book results a very well material. I am professor from the Univ. and my own Linux/Free software Centre and I found this book that has the right way of teachings.
   Another important detail is, i am Spanish speaker and i could easily read, speak and translate English. But most of the times I found many programming books that has a way to explain things not thinking if that many languages speakers could read it. This one is a very exception: it is easy to understand, even when you native language is not English.
   
   So, Congrats Mark!!



5. The book contains one of the best Python introductions I've seen so far, which means it's useful even when you don't know Python, yet. After the introduction, you'll love it :)
   
   After that come 19 chapters which are packed with useful information in well digestible bits so the reader won't feel overwhelmed. When you're a professional, you won't waste time finding the information you need and when you're a beginner, you can easily follow every step as the author builds the examples from ground up.
   
   When I started with PyQt, I was a seasoned Python developer but I knew little about Qt. With the help of the book, I could write a complex application using even more complex widgets like QTextEditor (including HTML formatting) in a very short time. Developing was a very nice experience because the book always seemed to contain just the answer that I was looking for.