Learning Python (Help for Programmers)

Python is an object-oriented language for writing standalone programs, quick scripts, and prototypes of complex applications. Python is free, open source, and easy to use. Python scripts are portable across many platforms, including all major Unix systems, Linux, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, and MacOS. Already widely used on Unix and Linux platforms, Python's clean interface to Windows application object models makes it an attractive scripting language for Windows programmers. JPython, a version of Python designed to work with the Java programming language, also makes Python an attractive tool in the Java environment. Learning Python is the perfect introduction to this increasingly popular scripting language. Written by two leading Python trainers, this book covers the core concepts of the language. Each chapter contains many examples and ends with a set of exercises. Because Python can be run interactively, the reader can run the examples and exercises on any system where Python is installed. Suggested solutions to all the exercises are in the back of the book, making it an excellent teaching and leaming tool. This book provides a description of the basic building blocks of a Python program : types, operators, statements, functions, modules, classes, and exceptions. In addition, the book introduces more advanced topics, including some complex, real-world examples. Finally, it shows programmers how to use Python with specialized libraries to build large-scale applications, including a substantial program written in JPython. For simple scripts or complex scientific, web, database, graphics, and animation programs, Python is proving to be a powerful and convenient tool. With Learning Python, programmers can learn to use this language quickly and efficiently.