Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
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Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#2Hi everyone,
Last year, I was lucky enough to sign a book deal with The Pragmatic Bookshelf to write an intermediate level book on Python. (The Pragmatic Bookshelf is the publishing company founded by the authors of one of my favorite programming books: The Pragmatic Programmer.)
Having written Python most of my professional career, I wanted a resource that I could give to engineers who might have deeper experience in some language that wasn't necessarily Python. I wanted to help teammates newer to Python quickly discover its virtues (and limitations). I think there are tremendous Python resources available online, but wanted to capture another perspective to help teammates level up their skills.
The book ("Intuitive Python: Productive Development for Projects that Last") went through a beta release this spring, and was officially released this month.
It's available (including a few free sections) here: https://pragprog.com/titles/dmpython/intuitive-python/
In case anyone is thinking of becoming an author with the The Pragmatic Bookshelf, I'd be happy to share my thoughts about the publishing experience there (spoiler: I had a positive experience).
I'm proud to have released this book, and excited to share it here.
Thanks!
-David
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#3Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931
The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#4Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931 The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
I think Python definitely has its drawbacks, and it's not fast. The other downsides listed in that article (whitespace, variable scoping, lambdas, mobile, etc.) may also be get in your way sometimes, but seems doubtful that they are language killers...I agree the argument presented in that article is weak.
I'm biased, but I think Python as your daily driver language is a great choice.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#5Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931 The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
I think Python definitely has its drawbacks, and it's not fast. The other downsides listed in that article (whitespace, variable scoping, lambdas, mobile, etc.) may also be get in your way sometimes, but seems doubtful that they are language killers...I agree the argument presented in that article is weak. I'm biased, but I think Python as your daily driver language is a great choice.
Thanks. If I need speed I can always interface to C. I'm still going to learn a bit of Julia today to see what it's about.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#6Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931 The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
That article is very strange. All the weaknesses it lists have been around since the start. And how exactly have they impeded Python's growth till now?
There are genuine issues with Python: no mobile story (but how many other languages do?), and distribution is harder than it needs to be. The second is getting some attention, hopefully it'll be better soon.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Python definitely has its drawbacks, and it's not fast. The other downsides listed in that article (whitespace, variable scoping, lambdas, mobile, etc.) may also be get in your way sometimes, but seems doubtful that they are language killers...I agree the argument presented in that article is weak. I'm biased, but I think Python as your daily driver language is a great choice.
Thanks. If I need speed I can always interface to C. I'm still going to learn a bit of Julia today to see what it's about.
PyPy and GraalPython also can offer significant speedups in certain workloads.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#8Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931 The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
That article is very strange. All the weaknesses it lists have been around since the start. And how exactly have they impeded Python's growth till now? There are genuine issues with Python: no mobile story (but how many other languages do?), and distribution is harder than it needs to be. The second is getting some attention, hopefully it'll be better soon.
> And how exactly have they impeded Python's growth till now?
Hard to be *exact* but presumably they have impeded growth in mobile? Swift has a 2% market share according to Google. Probably some performance people have migrated to rust or julia or stayed with the C family too?
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#9Hi everyone, Last year, I was lucky enough to sign a book deal with The Pragmatic Bookshelf to write an intermediate level book on Python. (The Pragmatic Bookshelf is the publishing company founded by the authors of one of my favorite programming books: The Pragmatic Programmer.) Having written Python most of my professional career, I wanted a resource that I could give to engineers who might have deeper experience i…
Hey man just wanted to say congratulations on publishing this book.
As I python developer myself do you think I can use this book to further advance my knowledge of python
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book about Python
#10Congratulations on your book! I am fortunate enough to know quite a few languages, so I decided to pick one for all my needs and it seemed Python fit them. Then I recently read on HN "Why Python is not the Language of the Future" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27562931 The arguments put forth seemed weak, but wondered what you thought
It's got some factual errors.
> In Python, inner scopes can only see outer scopes, but not change them.
Unless you explicitly declare your intent with a `nonlocal` declaration.
> This distinction between expressions and statements is rather arbitrary, and doesn’t occur in other languages.
This is technically true, but the phrasing is potentially misleading. There are some other languages where every statement is an expression, but most make a firm distinction. Including 2/3 of the languages that the article proposes as alternatives to Python.