Based on the title, Expert Python Programming, (by Tarek Ziadé) I had expected a book covering the Python language… syntax, advanced data structures, maybe some functional programming… stuff like that. This book surprised me. Rather, it contains a hodgepodge of information about the world of Python development, from setting up editors to distributed version control to application distribution. “Expert Python Programming” does contain some information on the Python language itself, but not as much as I would have hoped. While it does contain a good amount of useful information, overall, I’d have to say that it misses the target.

Quickly summarized, the book contains 3 chapters on package management and distribution, 2 on syntax, 2 on optimization, and one each on language setup, naming conventions (style guide), version control, project management, documentation, test-driven development, and design patterns. Based on the content, I might have titled this book “Expert Python Development Practices”, and think I would have been happier reading it in that case. The discrepancy between the title and the content is especially bothersome to me, since it would be easy to assume this book focused specifically on programming, rather than code management.

Expert Python Programming’s greatest asset is the number of tools and utilities that it covers. As a mostly casual Python programmer, there were a number of things that I learned, especially with regard to package management and distribution. I’ve never needed to build a package, and never used Atomisator or zc.buildout before, so I found these chapters rather interesting (though not personally useful at the moment). To be sure, when I need to use these, this book will the be the first place I come.

I was familiar with a decent amount of the information in the documentation, test-driven development, and style-guide chapters from reading some of the Python Documentation and a few of the PEPs (Python Enahncement Proposals). These chapters would be good for anyone who doesn’t want to have to go and search for this information on their own, and I think it would be rather handy to have all of this information in one place.

The weakest part of the book were the chapters focusing on Python itself. The majority wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking here that I haven’t read elsewhere, while the interesting sections, such as “How Python Deals with Memory” and “Multithreading” were short and not particularly detailed. The sections on optimization were nice, but limited.

My only other observations were that the Mr. Ziadé at times made statements of opinions that he presented as fact. I would have preferred him presenting code as evidence towards these opinions and leaving the reader to decide for themselves. To be fair, these moments were infrequent enough that they weren’t that bothersome.

Through no fault of the author, Packt Publishing did let a number of small editorial mistakes slip through. Additionally, I found myself often wanting a better presentation of code samples. The overall design of the code examples and body text of the book ended up being quite similar, and I wish that they had made a bigger differential between the two.

Personally, I was disappointed that the Expert Python Programming’s didn’t feature aspects about the language as prominently as the everything else. I can only recommend that any potential buyers of this book borrow a copy, or make a trip to the local bookstore to flip through it first. Otherwise, this may not be the book that you were looking for.

The book’s subtitle, “A beginner’s tutorial to building web applications, quickly and cleanly, with the Django application framework,” frames the book perfectly.  Its target audience is programmers (moderately) familiar with Python, but who are, at the same time, new to Django.  The book is really focused towards this audience.  The other key word in the subtitle is “quickly.”  This book moves along in a hurry while creating the demonstration app.  I was quite comfortable (and pleased) by the pace, however, I can imagine that a more novice programmer may have a harder time dealing with the information flying by.

The book centers on building one app, a social bookmarking website similar to del.icio.us, or ma.gnolia.  I think type of site was a good choice, since it provides the author with a varying degree of complexity to play around with.  It allowed Mr. Hourieh to start with the basics.  This book succeeds in starting simple and getting harder as it goes along.  I also thought it was good to focus on creating just one website, rather than a bunch of mini-projects or examples, since it models a more real-life situation.  The idea of a social bookmarking website, as well, is very useful because its features are currently en vogue, and can be found on many current sites.

Chapters One and Two are the obligatory “what is Django” and “how to install” chapters.  The meat of the book starts in Chapter Three when the project is introduced.   By the end of this third chapter, we’ve already quickly written three database models (Links, Users, and Bookmarks) and the main page.  Chapter Four introduces Django’s built-in user authentication system (django.contrib.auth), and describes how to write login, logout, and registration pages.  Chapter Five instructs us to write an additional database model (tags), which is more complex than the models we wrote previously.  Here we also write pages to display the list of bookmarks, bookmarks by tags, and a tag cloud.  [To illustrate how fast we're moving, Chapter Five ends on page 91]

Mr. Hourieh adds occasional asides throughout Learning Website Development with Django, such as one on security at the end of Chapter Five.  Personally, I’d have liked to see more of these, but I think he consciously limited the number to better suit the book’s audience.

Chapter Six introduces AJAX behaviors, using the jQuery library.  The author includes a lightning-fast tutorial on jQuery.  The reader is then shown how to implement a live search display, in-place bookmark editing, and a tag auto-complete feature.  Chapter Seven adds both a voting and commenting system to our application.  The user writes a new database model (Shared Bookmark), and shows how to implement comments piggy-backing on Django’s built-in comment system (django.contrib.comments).

In Chapter Eight, we are finally introduced to Django’s built-in Administration Interface (django.contrib.admin), and the reader is shown how to customize the admin pages and deal with user permissions.  Chapter Nine describes adding RSS feeds, Pagination, and advanced search capabilities to our application.  We’re taught how to create advanced model queries using both the objects.filter() function and Q objects to build multi-faceted queries.

Chapter Ten focuses on adding a “Friend” data model to the application.  This chapter demonstrates how Django can be used to send email (friend ‘invites’ in this case), and how the bookmark application can be used to handle activation links.  Chapter Eleven covers three topics; language translation, caching, and unit testing.  None of these are as “flashy” as the previously covered topics, but they are given adequate mention. The final chapter, Chapter Twelve mentions a number of advanced topics that the reader is left to research on his/her own.

The book is generally well written.  I like the structure.  The chapter beginnings outline a plan for implementation, and the remainders proceede step-by-step.  I would have liked the writing to have been polished a little more.  The language seems too formal in places, and when you mix in a number of technical ideas, the language can distract.  This however, may just be a personal preference.

The more I think about Learning Website Development with Django, the more I like it.  It is well suited for someone who wants to get off the ground quickly; someone who needs to get something done and can worry about the details when they need to.  It’s not a bible, but it’s not trying to be, and I think that’s where it really succeeds.

My sister Tania was at the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating competition today.  She was happy with the result, I was rooting for Kobayashi.  Oh well.  My roommate was rather disgusted by the whole thing.  Me?  I found myself REALLY wanting a hot dog.

Speaking of food… my roommate and I were flipping channels the other day and she insisted on stopping on the food network.  They had a show on about local resturants known only to locals.  The first part was on a place I’ve passed countless numbers of times, called Chaps Charcoal Resturant. It looked pretty good, and the prices are good, so I may have to visit soon.

Since I’m on a food kick at the moment, one more… this may also soon become my favorite thing.  Gotta try it.

Elsewhere…

The Sox won, beating the Yankees today, but are still behind the Rays.  If the Rays suffer injuries down the stretch, they’ll fall.  However, that seems to be a big if.  The Red Sox need to get a number of people back.

And  more locally…

When I have some free moments, I’ve been working rebuilding gbyo.com in Django.  The programming part isn’t particularly hard (despite not being familiar with Python… though, it’s not unlike other languages), and I kinda like the database API (It’s been a while, so I only barely remember ActiveRecord, but I seem to like this more).  The thing I haven’t grasped yet is overall project structure.  I’m working on that.

I’ve bought a number of books recently, and hope to start reading them soon.  Right now, I am reading this, as the publishers were nice enough to send me a review copy.  Review coming soon.  Additionally, I want to post some more formal thoughts about Crockford’s Javascript book soon. (Note: yes, that first linked book cost me .48 cents, w/o shipping)

I’m trying to convince people to go on vacation with me.  So far, I haven’t heard back from anyone.  That will only stall me, it will not deter me.