The Pythonic Way

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.

Learn to build and manage better software with clean, intuitive, scalable, maintainable, and high-performance Python code. KEY FEATURES ● Comparative analysis of regular and Pythonic coding constructs. ● Illustrates application design paradigms for Python projects. ● Detailed pointers on optimal data processing and application design. ● Highlights accepted conventions for testing and managing production code. DESCRIPTION ‘The Pythonic Way' acquaints you with Python's capabilities beyond basic syntax. This book will help you understand widely accepted Pythonic constructs and procedures, thus enabling you to write reliable, optimized, and modular applications. You'll learn about Pythonic data structures, class and object creation, and more. The book then delves into some of Python's lesser-known but incredibly powerful functionalities such as meta-programming, decorators, context managers, generators, and iterators. Additionally, you'll learn how to accelerate computations by using Pandas Series and Dataframes. You will be introduced to various design patterns that work well with Python applications. Finally, we'll discuss testing frameworks and best practices for testing, packaging, launching, and publishing applications in production environments. This book will empower you as you transition from beginner or competitive Python coding to industry-standard Python software development. Intermediate Python developers will gain a deeper understanding of the language's nuances, enabling them to create better software. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Understand common practices for writing scalable and legible Python code. ● Create robust and maintainable production codebases for time and space performant applications. ● Master effective data processing practices and features like generators and decorators to improve complex computations on large datasets. ● Get familiar with Pythonic design patterns for secure, large-scale applications. ● Learn to organize your project’s code into modules. ● Familiarize yourself with different testing tools and frameworks. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book is a valuable reference manual for novice and intermediate programmers and data scientists to learn about Pythonic standards and conventions. For beginners, this book will get you started with Pythonic thinking. This book will serve as a guide to fine-tune your skills beyond syntax and help build robust Python applications for intermediate Python coders. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction to Pythonic Code 2. Pythonic Data Structures 3. Classes and OOP Conventions 4. Python Modules and Metaprogramming 5. Pythonic Décorators and Context Managers 6. Data Processing Done Right 7. Iterators, Generators, and Coroutines 8. Python Descriptors 9. Pythonic Application Design and Architecture 10. Effective Testing for Python Code 11. Production Code Management

You Will Learn Python! Zed Shaw has perfected the world's best system for learning Python. Follow it and you will succeed-just like the hundreds of thousands of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else. In Learn Python the Hard Way, Third Edition, you'll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you'll learn how software works; what good programs look like; how to read, write, and think about code; and how to find and fix your mistakes using tricks professional programmers use. Most importantly, you'll learn the following, which you need to start writing excellent Python software of your own: Installing a complete Python environment Organizing and writing code Basic mathematics Variables Strings and text Interacting with users Working with files Looping and logic Data structures using lists and dictionaries Program design Object-oriented programming Inheritance and composition Modules, classes, and objects Python packaging Debugging Automated testing Basic game development Basic web development It'll be hard at first. But soon, you'll just get it-and that will feel great! This tutorial will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you'll know one of the world's most powerful, popular programming languages. You'll be a Python programmer. Watch Zed, too! The accompanying DVD contains 5+ hours of passionate, powerful teaching: a complete Python video course!

You Will Learn Python 3! Zed Shaw has perfected the world’s best system for learning Python 3. Follow it and you will succeed—just like the millions of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else. In Learn Python 3 the Hard Way, you’ll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you’ll learn how a computer works; what good programs look like; and how to read, write, and think about code. Zed then teaches you even more in 5+ hours of video where he shows you how to break, fix, and debug your code—live, as he’s doing the exercises. Install a complete Python environment Organize and write code Fix and break code Basic mathematics Variables Strings and text Interact with users Work with files Looping and logic Data structures using lists and dictionaries Program design Object-oriented programming Inheritance and composition Modules, classes, and objects Python packaging Automated testing Basic game development Basic web development It’ll be hard at first. But soon, you’ll just get it—and that will feel great! This course will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll know one of the world’s most powerful, popular programming languages. You’ll be a Python programmer. This Book Is Perfect For Total beginners with zero programming experience Junior developers who know one or two languages Returning professionals who haven’t written code in years Seasoned professionals looking for a fast, simple, crash course in Python 3

I designed a learning system for myself that quadrupled my aptitude for learning computer languages. It worked so well for me that I've used it to teach coding to grandmothers, cab drivers, musicians, and 50,000 other newbies. Washington University research shows that a key teaching method I use--interactive recall practice--improves learning performance 400 percent. Computer languages are not inherently hard to understand, even for non-techies. Remembering is the problem. Research shows that you will remember everything if you're repeatedly asked to recall it. That's the beauty of flash cards. But technology offers an even better way to make information stick. With my book you get almost a thousand interactive exercises--they're free online--that embed the whole book in your memory. Algorithms check your work to make sure you know what you think you know. When you stumble, you do the exercise again. You keep trying until you know the chapter cold. The exercises keep you engaged, give you extra practice where you're shaky, and prepare you for each next step. Every lesson is built on top of a solid foundation that you and I have carefully constructed. Each individual step is small. But all the little steps add up to real knowledge--knowledge that you retain. You don't need to be a computer genius to learn Python. You just need to be smart about how you learn it.--Amazon.com description.

Get a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the core Python language with this hands-on book. Based on author Mark Lutz’s popular training course, this updated fifth edition will help you quickly write efficient, high-quality code with Python. It’s an ideal way to begin, whether you’re new to programming or a professional developer versed in other languages. Complete with quizzes, exercises, and helpful illustrations, this easy-to-follow, self-paced tutorial gets you started with both Python 2.7 and 3.3— the latest releases in the 3.X and 2.X lines—plus all other releases in common use today. You’ll also learn some advanced language features that recently have become more common in Python code. Explore Python’s major built-in object types such as numbers, lists, and dictionaries Create and process objects with Python statements, and learn Python’s general syntax model Use functions to avoid code redundancy and package code for reuse Organize statements, functions, and other tools into larger components with modules Dive into classes: Python’s object-oriented programming tool for structuring code Write large programs with Python’s exception-handling model and development tools Learn advanced Python tools, including decorators, descriptors, metaclasses, and Unicode processing

Transform Your Ideas into High-Quality Python Code! Zed Shaw has perfected the world’s best system for becoming a truly effective Python 3.x developer. Follow it and you will succeed—just like the tens of millions of programmers he’s already taught. You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else. In Learn Python 3 the Hard Way, Zed Shaw taught you the basics of Programming with Python 3. Now, in Learn More Python 3 the Hard Way, you’ll go far beyond the basics by working through 52 brilliantly crafted projects. Each one helps you build a key practical skill, combining demos to get you started and challenges to deepen your understanding. Zed then teaches you even more in 12 hours of online videos, where he shows you how to break, fix, and debug your code. First, you’ll discover how to analyze a concept, idea, or problem to implement in software. Then, step by step, you’ll learn to design solutions based on your analyses and implement them as simply and elegantly as possible. Throughout, Shaw stresses process so you can get started and build momentum, creativity to solve new problems, and quality so you’ll build code people can rely on. Manage complex projects with a programmer’s text editor Leverage the immense power of data structures Apply algorithms to process your data structures Master indispensable text parsing and processing techniques Use SQL to efficiently and logically model stored data Learn powerful command-line tools and skills Combine multiple practices in complete projects It’ll be hard at first. But soon, you’ll just get it—and that will feel great! This course will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll go beyond merely writing code that runs: you’ll craft high-quality Python code that solves real problems. You’ll be a serious Python programmer. Perfect for Everyone Who’s Already Started Working with Python, including Junior Developers and Seasoned Python Programmers Upgrading to Python 3.6+ Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available.

The financial industry has recently adopted Python at a tremendous rate, with some of the largest investment banks and hedge funds using it to build core trading and risk management systems. Updated for Python 3, the second edition of this hands-on book helps you get started with the language, guiding developers and quantitative analysts through Python libraries and tools for building financial applications and interactive financial analytics. Using practical examples throughout the book, author Yves Hilpisch also shows you how to develop a full-fledged framework for Monte Carlo simulation-based derivatives and risk analytics, based on a large, realistic case study. Much of the book uses interactive IPython Notebooks.