The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python

by Kenneth Reitz, Tanya Schlusser
Released August 2016
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491933220

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Book description

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python takes the journeyman Pythonista to true expertise. More than any other language, Python was created with the philosophy of simplicity and parsimony. Now 25 years old, Python has become the primary or secondary language (after SQL) for many business users. With popularity comes diversity—and possibly dilution.

This guide, collaboratively written by over a hundred members of the Python community, describes best practices currently used by package and application developers. Unlike other books for this audience, The Hitchhiker’s Guide is light on reusable code and heavier on design philosophy, directing the reader to excellent sources that already exist.

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Conventions Used in This Book
    2. Safari® Books Online
    3. How to Contact Us
    4. Acknowledgments
  2. I. Getting Started
  3. 1. Picking an Interpreter
    1. The State of Python 2 Versus Python 3
    2. Recommendations
    3. So…3?
    4. Implementations
      1. CPython
      2. Stackless
      3. PyPy
      4. Jython
      5. IronPython
      6. PythonNet
      7. Skulpt
      8. MicroPython
  4. 2. Properly Installing Python
    1. Installing Python on Mac OS X
      1. Setuptools and pip
      2. virtualenv
    2. Installing Python on Linux
      1. Setuptools and pip
      2. Development Tools
      3. virtualenv
    3. Installing Python on Windows
      1. Setuptools and pip
      2. virtualenv
    4. Commercial Python Redistributions
  5. 3. Your Development Environment
    1. Text Editors
      1. Sublime Text
      2. Vim
      3. Emacs
      4. TextMate
      5. Atom
      6. Code
    2. IDEs
      1. PyCharm/IntelliJ IDEA
      2. Aptana Studio 3/Eclipse + LiClipse + PyDev
      3. WingIDE
      4. Spyder
      5. NINJA-IDE
      6. Komodo IDE
      7. Eric (the Eric Python IDE)
      8. Visual Studio
    3. Enhanced Interactive Tools
      1. IDLE
      2. IPython
      3. bpython
    4. Isolation Tools
      1. Virtual Environments
      2. pyenv
      3. Autoenv
      4. virtualenvwrapper
      5. Buildout
      6. Conda
      7. Docker
  6. II. Getting Down to Business
  7. 4. Writing Great Code
    1. Code Style
      1. PEP 8
      2. PEP 20 (a.k.a. The Zen of Python)
      3. General Advice
      4. Conventions
      5. Idioms
      6. Common Gotchas
    2. Structuring Your Project
      1. Modules
      2. Packages
      3. Object-Oriented Programming
      4. Decorators
      5. Dynamic Typing
      6. Mutable and Immutable Types
      7. Vendorizing Dependencies
    3. Testing Your Code
      1. Testing Basics
      2. Examples
      3. Other Popular Tools
    4. Documentation
      1. Project Documentation
      2. Project Publication
      3. Docstring Versus Block Comments
    5. Logging
      1. Logging in a Library
      2. Logging in an Application
    6. Choosing a License
      1. Upstream Licenses
      2. Options
      3. Licensing Resources
  8. 5. Reading Great Code
    1. Common Features
    2. HowDoI
      1. Reading a Single-File Script
      2. Structure Examples from HowDoI
      3. Style Examples from HowDoI
    3. Diamond
      1. Reading a Larger Application
      2. Structure Examples from Diamond
      3. Style Examples from Diamond
    4. Tablib
      1. Reading a Small Library
      2. Structure Examples from Tablib
      3. Style Examples from Tablib
    5. Requests
      1. Reading a Larger Library
      2. Structure Examples from Requests
      3. Style Examples from Requests
    6. Werkzeug
      1. Reading Code in a Toolkit
      2. Style Examples from Werkzeug
      3. Structure Examples from Werkzeug
    7. Flask
      1. Reading Code in a Framework
      2. Style Examples from Flask
      3. Structure Examples from Flask
  9. 6. Shipping Great Code
    1. Useful Vocabulary and Concepts
    2. Packaging Your Code
      1. Conda
      2. PyPI
    3. Freezing Your Code
      1. PyInstaller
      2. cx_Freeze
      3. py2app
      4. py2exe
      5. bbFreeze
    4. Packaging for Linux-Built Distributions
    5. Executable ZIP Files
  10. III. Scenario Guide
  11. 7. User Interaction
    1. Jupyter Notebooks
    2. Command-Line Applications
    3. GUI Applications
      1. Widget Libraries
      2. Game Development
    4. Web Applications
      1. Web Frameworks/Microframeworks
      2. Web Template Engines
      3. Web Deployment
  12. 8. Code Management and Improvement
    1. Continuous Integration
    2. System Administration
      1. Server Automation
      2. System and Task Monitoring
    3. Speed
      1. Interfacing with C/C++/FORTRAN Libraries
  13. 9. Software Interfaces
    1. Web Clients
      1. Web APIs
    2. Data Serialization
    3. Distributed Systems
      1. Networking
    4. Cryptography
  14. 10. Data Manipulation
    1. Scientific Applications
    2. Text Manipulation and Text Mining
      1. String Tools in Python’s Standard Library
      2. Image Manipulation
  15. 11. Data Persistence
    1. Structured Files
    2. Database Libraries
  16. A. Additional Notes
    1. Python’s Community
      1. BDFL
      2. Python Software Foundation
      3. PEPs
    2. Learning Python
      1. Beginners
      2. Intermediate
      3. Advanced
      4. For Engineers and Scientists
      5. Miscellaneous Topics
      6. References
    3. Documentation
    4. News
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python
  • Author(s): Kenneth Reitz, Tanya Schlusser
  • Release date: August 2016
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491933220