a/PER-review

From: danny@cs.usyd.edu.au (Danny Yee)
Subject: Book Review - Python Essential Reference
Date: 6 Feb 2000 23:10:39 +1100

An HTML version of this book review can be found at
http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/h/Python_Reference.html
along with five hundred other reviews

     title: Python Essential Reference
        by: David M. Beazley
 publisher: New Riders 2000
  subjects: computing
     other: 319 pages

The _Python Essential Reference_ contains an 85 page survey of the
core Python programming language, 160 pages describing the more widely
used modules in the Python library ("Appendix A"), and 30 pages on
extending and embedding Python ("Appendix B").  The first section has
some examples and explanation, but tends to the concise rather than the
discursive and is not suitable for learning Python from (except perhaps
for experienced programmers).  The second covers much the same material
as the online Library Reference that comes with Python, generally trading
completeness for usability.  So the explanation of the rfc822 module,
to take a random example, is clearer than that in the Library Reference
but doesn't mention some of the overrides, public instance variables, and
more obscure methods; it also adds a brief example and cross-references
to related modules.

Some will appreciate having a choice of explanations, or the extra
examples and explanations the _Python Essential Reference_ provides.
Given that the online documentation is functionally very similar, however,
I suspect that only those with a preference for printed documentation
will end up using it as a reference.  The volume is attractively laid out,
with the only possible problem for some being the small font.

--

%T	Python Essential Reference
%A	David M. Beazley
%I	New Riders
%C	Indianopolis
%D	2000
%O	paperback
%G	ISBN 0-7357-0901-7
%P	319pp
%U	http://www.newriders.com/cfm/prod_book.cfm?RecordID=210
%K	computing

6 February 2000

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        Copyright (c) 2000 Danny Yee (danny@cs.usyd.edu.au)
        http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/
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