Introducing Python: Modern Computing in Simple Packages

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"O'Reilly Media, Inc.", Nov 11, 2014 - Computers - 484 pages

Easy to understand and fun to read, Introducing Python is ideal for beginning programmers as well as those new to the language. Author Bill Lubanovic takes you from the basics to more involved and varied topics, mixing tutorials with cookbook-style code recipes to explain concepts in Python 3. End-of-chapter exercises help you practice what you’ve learned.

You’ll gain a strong foundation in the language, including best practices for testing, debugging, code reuse, and other development tips. This book also shows you how to use Python for applications in business, science, and the arts, using various Python tools and open source packages.

  • Learn simple data types, and basic math and text operations
  • Use data-wrangling techniques with Python’s built-in data structures
  • Explore Python code structure, including the use of functions
  • Write large programs in Python, with modules and packages
  • Dive into objects, classes, and other object-oriented features
  • Examine storage from flat files to relational databases and NoSQL
  • Use Python to build web clients, servers, APIs, and services
  • Manage system tasks such as programs, processes, and threads
  • Understand the basics of concurrency and network programming
 

Contents

Chapter 1 A Taste of Py
1
Numbers Strings and Variables
17
Lists Tuples Dictionaries and Sets
43
Code Structures
71
Modules Packages and Programs
111
Objects and Classes
125
Chapter 7 Mangle Data Like a Pro
147
Chapter 8 Data Has to Go Somewhere
177
Chapter 12 Be a Pythonista
311
Appendix A Py Art
345
Appendix B Py at Work
359
Appendix C Py Sci
373
Appendix D Install Python 3
393
Appendix E Answers to Exercises
403
Appendix F Cheat Sheets
437
Index
441

Chapter 9 The Web Untangled
223
Chapter 10 Systems
247
Chapter 11 Concurrency and Networks
267
About the Author
460
Copyright

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About the author (2014)

Bill Lubanovic has developed software with UNIX since 1977, GUIs since 1981, databases since 1990, and the Web since 1993. At a startup named Intran in 1982, he developed MetaForm -- one of the first commercial GUIs (before the Mac or Windows), on one of the first graphic workstations. At Northwest Airlines in the early 1990s, he wrote a graphic yield management system that generated millions of dollars in revenue; got the company on the Internet; and wrote its first Internet marketing test. He co-founded an ISP (Tela) in 1994, and a web development company (Mad Scheme) in 1999. Recently, he developed core services and distributed systems with a remote team for a Manhattan startup. Currently, he's integrating OpenStack services for a supercomputer company. He enjoys life in Minnesota with his wonderful wife Mary, children Tom and Karin, and cats Inga, Chester, and Lucy.

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