Introducing Python: Modern Computing in Simple Packages

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

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. A Taste of Py
Chapter 2. Py Ingredients: Numbers, Strings, and Variables
Chapter 3. Py Filling: Lists, Tuples, Dictionaries, and Sets
Chapter 4. Py Crust: Code Structures
Chapter 5. Py Boxes: Modules, Packages, and Programs
Chapter 6. Oh Oh: Objects and Classes
Chapter 7. Mangle Data Like a Pro
Chapter 8. Data Has to Go Somewhere
Chapter 9. The Web, Untangled
Chapter 10. Systems
Chapter 11. Concurrency and Networks
Chapter 12. Be a Pythonista
Appendix A. Py Art
Appendix B. Py at Work
Appendix C. Py Sci
Appendix D. Install Python 3
Appendix E. Answers to Exercises
Appendix F. Cheat Sheets