Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python (Effective Software Development Series) 1st Edition

I thought I knew Python pretty well before reading this book, but I discovered I have a lot to learn. What this book shows is how to improve your Python code in specific and clear ways.One aspect I appreciated was how the author shows a naive implementation of a common solution. This is often a solution most people would think of, and these naive solutions looked correct at first glance. The author then shows where the naive solution fails, why it fails, and a way to do it better.I particularly liked Item 37 which discussed threads in Python. It describes the CPython implementation and the GIL (global interpreter lock) in a way I have not seen before. It was a clear description and informative.The chapters have a good range in difficulty from easy to challenging. For example, Item 2 is a recommendation to use PEP 8 as a style guide. This chapter will be easily accessible to anyone. However, Chapter 4 about Metaclasses and Attributes was extremely challenging for me.Each sentence is well written and packed with information. Side notes are provided when needed and these were also useful. The coloring of the book is nice, as it looks like an interactive development environment to show which keywords are highlighted. The examples provided in the Items are relevant to current programming practices.

Very good book. Starts with basics, but it quickly goes into 'magic' territory, so whether you're a veteran or just wanting to see what's special about Python, you will find some new approaches.The examples are clear. They are not some 'dry' Class X, method Y sort of examples, they tend to use examples that better illustrate the scenario; so if you at first don't get the author's explanation, you might see what's going on because of the connotations that come with sensible examples.The formatting and layout are fairly good, especially with syntax highlighting code. There are few goofy spots where text talks about code that's displayed on the next page, so to relate one to the other you need to flip pages back'n'forth, and some tables/boxes spill over to the next page for like two lines. But that's just minor nit-picking.My biggest 'complaint' is about what's NOT in the book. There is only a slight mention of itertools, or any functional programming concepts, that are so neatly baked into Python. There is also very slim amount of information on testing, which I would like to read more about, as it's become very commonplace. I would love to see a second edition of this book with extended sections on the aforementioned topics.

Straight to the point, concise and all organized. Helped to get me going in Python. Recommend it your age serious about Python.

Although I'm only about half way through the book I've already learned a lot of really cool tricks that I've actually applied in my own programs since. (I hate learning tricks that aren't that useful in practical use cases) So far, I especially enjoyed the sections about list comprehension and generators. Generators were completely new to me and I was amazed at how useful they are for large data sets!There's lots of cool tricks to learn. The chapters are short enough where you can just sit down for 15 minutes and knock one out. This is great for me when I just want to read a little before bed, but I've also sat down and read the book for a few hours at a time. I've had no problems with the Kindle version. Although you can skip around in the book, I recommend a front to back read, as some of the concepts build on each other.

Guess I'm the first person to purchase this book ( kindle edition ) on Amazon. I bought this book because of Fred Jonsson's great review.I'll give book 5 stars for now and change it later if my experience warrants otherwise.2015.03.20 : UpdateWhat I have read I thoroughly enjoyed.I'm not as gifted nor eloquent as Fred Jonsson. Fred did a superb job summarizing and describing the book and all I can add to that is I agree with everything he has said thus far.I opted for kindle version because it was available now and I like portability, access anywhere on any device and ability to search.It's very easy to read, follow along and information is immediately practical, beneficial and useful.What one gains or experience is highly subjective and personal.I like book. I'm learning. It's exceeding my expectations thus far. Highly recommend it.If you haven't already done so, read Fred Jonsson's review and the Book's Description on main page. Based on what I've read in book thus far, everything they've shared is accurate.

I'm really enjoying this book as an intermediate python programmer looking to learn more "pythonic" ways of doing things and taking advantage of the full standard library and more performant practices. This book is very practical and you can skip around in no particular order and there are concise code examples to demonstrate the ideas contained in each tip. This book is more about the philosophy of good code design and scalability than it is a workbook to accomplish specific tasks, so don't expect to read it and code along and make really interesting projects. Instead, think of this book as a set of best practices to make your code more easily debugged, easier to read, easier for other people to use, and hopefully have better performance as well.

excellent summary of some python features that make the language different than many others. Definitely a good read if you're looking to become a better python programmer or to understand a little more about some unique features (e.g metaclasses, decorators). I wish it had given a little more credit to or mention some 3P libraries if nothing else as a pointer to tell the reader what to read about next (e.g. requests, boto, pytest, matplotlib) just to mention a few areas.