Programming Python

The beginning

System programming.

GUI programming

Internet programming

Tools and techniques

The end.

Table of Contents; Foreword; How Time Flies!; Coming Attractions; Concluding Remarks; Foreword to the Second Edition (2001); Foreword from the First Edition (1996); Preface; "And Now for Something Completely Different ... Again"; About This Book; About This Edition; Python Changes; Example Changes; Topic Changes; Focus Unchanged; This Book's Motivation; This Book's Structure; This Edition's Design; It's Been Updated for Python 2.4 (and 2.5); It's Been Reorganized; It Covers New Topics; It's Still Mostly Platform-Neutral; C integration code platform issues.

It's Still Focused for a More Advanced AudienceIt's Still Example-Oriented; Using the Book's Examples; The Book Examples Tree; The Book Examples Distribution Package; Running Examples: The Short Story; Running Examples: The Details; Demos and gadgets; Setup requirements; Web-based examples; Top-level programs; Conventions Used in This Book; Safari® Enabled; Where to Look for Updates; Contacting O'Reilly; Using Code Examples; Acknowledgments; Part I; Introducing Python; "And Now for Something Completely Different"; Python Philosophy 101; The Life of Python; Signs of the Python Times.

Recent Growth (As of 2005, at Least)The Compulsory Features List; What's Python Good For?; What's Python Not Good For?; Truth in Advertising; A Sneak Preview; "Programming Python: The Short Story"; The Task; Step 1: Representing Records; Using Lists; A database list; Field labels; Using Dictionaries; Other ways to make dictionaries; Lists of dictionaries; Nested structures; Dictionaries of dictionaries; Step 2: Storing Records Persistently; Using Formatted Files; Test data script; Data format script; Utility scripts; Using Pickle Files; Using Per-Record Pickle Files; Using Shelves.

Step 3: Stepping Up to OOPUsing Classes; Adding Behavior; Adding Inheritance; Refactoring Code; Augmenting methods; Display format; Constructor customization; Alternative classes; Adding Persistence; Other Database Options; Step 4: Adding Console Interaction; A Console Shelve Interface; Step 5: Adding a GUI; GUI Basics; Using OOP for GUIs; Getting Input from a User; A GUI Shelve Interface; Coding the GUI; Using the GUI; Future directions; Step 6: Adding a Web Interface; CGI Basics; Running a Web Server; Using Query Strings and urllib; Formatting Reply Text; A Web-Based Shelve Interface.

Coding the web siteUsing the web site; Future directions; The End of the Demo; Part II; System Tools; "The os.path to Knowledge"; Why Python Here?; The Next Five Chapters; System Scripting Overview; Python System Modules; Module Documentation Sources; Paging Documentation Strings; Introducing String Methods; File Operation Basics; Using Programs in Two Ways; Python Library Manuals; Commercially Published References; Introducing the sys Module; Platforms and Versions; The Module Search Path; The Loaded Modules Table; Exception Details; Other sys Module Exports; Introducing the os Module.