The Python Apprentice

by Robert Smallshire, Austin Bingham

Learn the Python skills and culture you need to become a productive member of any Python project. The Python Apprentice is for anyone who wants to start building, creating and contributing towards a Python project. No previous knowledge of Python is required, although at least some familiarity with programming in another language is helpful. Experienced programmers want to know how to enhance their craft and we want to help them start as apprentices with Python. We know that before mastering Python you need to learn the culture and the tools to become a productive member of any Python project. Our goal with this book is to give you a practical and thorough introduction to Python programming, providing you with the insight and technical craftsmanship you need to be a productive member of any Python project. Python is a big language, and it’s not our intention with this book to cover everything there is to know. We just want to make sure that you, as the developer, know the tools, basic idioms and of course the ins and outs of the language, the standard library and other modules to be able to jump into most projects. We introduce topics gently and then revisit them on multiple occasions to add the depth required to support your progression as a Python developer. We've worked hard to structure the syllabus to avoid forward references. On only a few occasions do we require you to accept techniques on trust, before explaining them later; where we do, it's to deliberately establish good habits.

Genres: Technology, Computers, Computer Science

352 pages, ebook

Published June 21, 2017

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great tour of what it's like to work with Python as your primary computer science language. Rather than publishing a mechanical dictionary of topics that receive only the minimum attention (enough to paraphrase into one's own words), the author seems to treat each topic as needing to be defined, demonstrated and to identify the pitfalls that you'll encounter. What this shows to me is the difference between theory and pragmatism, between someone who codes alone and someone who codes on applications that pass through the hands of multiple developers.

Perhaps Python can give off the impression of a language for scientists, researchers and PhD's that write sloppy, slow code that no one else but them ever touches. But there are deep pockets within engineering of coders who work together on teams and handle anything from REST APIs to penetration testing to devops to data analytics and informatics. In my opinion that is where the rubber meets the road and Python either fails or succeeds as a practical first-choice programming language.

And you can tell this author has the working man's experience with the language and the practical insight learned at-scale which can help sell you on the elegance, power and versatility of Python.

[Michal Przybylowicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introductory book to Python language.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers a lot of the Python basics you need to know as an apprentice. Nevertheless, there are multiple chapters where I got the impression the authors know too much about Python to help a beginner. Therefore, and because of some unnecessarily complex examples, I can't really recommend this book for Python beginners.