Expert Programming Book R

I recently completed reading of the Packt Publishing book Expert Pyton Programming by Tarek Ziadé. Overall, as a Python developer, however not quite an expert yet (but working on it), I did find that the book was not quite on the “Expert” level as much of the topics I know as being an intermediate Python programmer.

Expert Python Programming is a useful guide that takes you from the installing Python and setting up your environment all the way through documentation and Test-Driven Development. As I read through the book, as I elluded to earlier, the book isnt so much of an “Expert” book as it is a Python user guide. The book takes you through the Python basics, offers some “intermediate” items, and concludes with “some” expert techniques.

I didnt feel that the book had an overall “flow” to it. The chapters themselves were great from an information standpoint, however, if you didnt follow the chapters in order, you will still come to the same conclusion. For this reason, I consider this book as more of a guide (a book to grab as a reference to a technique).

With all of that being said, I really enjoyed the book. The book gives a “high level” overview of several advanced Python modules such as itertools and offered several techniques different from the way that I have been currently applying functions, etc. Being an intermediate Python developer, the book seemed more for someone with my skillset than an expert.

PROS

* Chapters on good programming practices such as documentation, version control, and testing * Excellent review on managing your code with Mercurial * Excellent review on Test-Driven Programming * Great as a Python users guide * Gets right to the point on the topics

CONS

* Not exactly an “Expert” programming book

OVERALL

Overall, I feel that this was a great book that I would go back to as a reference. However, I am still on the lookout for an “Expert” level book!

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