Programming Python, 4th Edition

Part VI. The End

Like the first part of this book, this last part is a single chapter, this time a short one to provide some parting context:

Chapter 21

This chapter discusses Python’s roles and scope. It explores some of the broader ideas of Python’s common roles, with the added perspective afforded by the rest of the book. Much of this chapter is philosophical in nature, but it underscores some of the main reasons for using a tool like Python.

Note that there are no reference appendixes here. For additional reference resources, consult the Python standard manuals available online or commercially published reference books, such as O’Reilly’s Python Pocket Reference and others you can find in the usual places on the Web.

For additional Python core language material, see O’Reilly’s Learning Python. Among other things, the Fourth Edition of that book also explores more advanced API construction tools such as properties, descriptors, decorators, and metaclasses, which we skipped here because they fall into the core language category. That book also explores Unicode text in more depth than we did here, since it’s an inherent part of Python 3.

And for help on other Python-related topics, see the resources available at Python’s official website, http://www.python.org, or search the Web using your favorite search engine.