Rating: 
Summary: Great reference
Review: Probably the best book on python out there.I bought this one for reference, but was really amazed to see how well written this book was. A beginner can actually learn from this book. This book rocks!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great combination of tutorial and reference
Review: So often I have bought a book on a subject only to find it does not contain enough reference material, or conversely its readability is zero. In either case the solution is to buy a "companion" book to complete the set. Not so however with this offering from David Beazley. David just about strikes a perfect balance here. The only problem is that my copy's pages are getting worn, great book!
Rating:
Summary: Well written with excellent examples
Review: This book is probably the most useful book you will find about Python. The first 95 pages provide a very well written and well structured tutorial and overview of the Python language. Although not intended as an introduction for beginners, anybody with sound programming skills and experience in another object oriented language would find it readable. For someone with a small amount of experience in Python, this is an excellent read with great examples and clear explanations of all the Python constructs. Beazley also covers some other interesting areas like 'Performance and Memory Considerations' The next 200 pages form a detailed reference for the Python Library. While not covering the complete Python Library (which is ever changing), the author has taken time to provide clear new examples for the most useful of these functions. Only the very obscure functions are missing and this reference should prove useful to any Python programmer. The last 30 pages cover the topic of Extending and embedding Python. This section is for the advanced user only and will probably only prove useful if you intend to integrate C and Python applications. The book is well written, and well presented, with excellent examples throughout.
Rating: 
Summary: Handy Reference for Experienced Programmers
Review: Designed as a reference tool for intermediate to experienced programmers, Python Essential Reference is a terse, organized source of information for those itching to learn Python and want to hit the ground running. Those readers unfamilar with programming will probably want to avoid this title initially. Although much of the information can be found for free online, those folks who prefer to scan and search hardcopies (without killing trees and wearing out printers) will find this book a worthwhile purchase. Recommended
Rating:
Summary: Always by my side
Review: This book is superb for presenting the actual guts of the language. Don't expect philosophical discussions on the merits of Python over similar languages, or tutorial applications. Those topics are outside the scope of a clean reference. The book is clearly organized and presented in an intuitive manner. I find it indispensible in my day-to-day dealing with Python.
Rating:
Summary: As Titled
Review: As a happy owner of the previous edition I was pleased to see the same concise nature and quality reference covering Python 2.1 This book is not for the neophyte programmer though. If you are familiar with OO programming concepts this is THE book to get to learn the idiosyncracies of programming in Python. It is also THE compact reference to have on hand at all times. One flaw I found was the Table of Contents has a page numbering error. There is an updated PDF available from the publishers website.
Rating:
Summary: If you're serious about Python, you want this book
Review: I'm working on a Python project at the moment and have looked at the Python books currently available including Python Developer's Handbook, Programming Python Second Edition, etc. Most of them have added Python 2.1 features as an appendix or afterthought comment. The second edition of Python Essential Reference has done a beautiful job of incorporating 2.1 language features throughout the text. This is the Python book that I keep with me and refer to at least 10 times daily. This book is perfectly organized and has all the information you'll need. I love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for "mature" users of Python
Review: This is a remarkably complete reference to the Python language, considering the diminuitive physical size of the book. The "base review" is quite _OFF_ base; the book quite properly does not present arguments for "Why Python?" or other sorts of "comparative language" analysis; that is out of scope for its purpose as a compact language reference. If your purpose was to learn programming, or to figure out the merits of one language or another, then this book probably isn't for you. But for those of us that have occasion to need to pick up a book and find out how to do some nagging task using Python, and don't want the extra pounds of paper that come from apologia or "explaining programming to people who perhaps shouldn't bother trying to program," this is a very practical and useful reference. I got it because I have a relatively basic understanding of Python (but "grok" MANY other computer languages), and found that it eshewed the fluff.
Rating:
Summary: The one to keep next to your keyboard
Review: This book delivers exactly as advertised - it is a reference of the Python essentials including the most-often used modules. I've seen all the other books and have many of them and most are good as introductions, but none are good as a reference. I always have David Beazley's book next to me, and often cracked open, when I'm coding Python. David Beazley is also the author of SWIG, the most popular tool for writing C/C++ extensions to Python. He definately knows his stuff. BTW, the Amazon Editor's review is a crock. He is reviewing Python as a language more than reviewing the book. And he is assessing the book as an introduction to the language and not as the reference it is intended to be. Don't believe it and buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great reference for experienced programmers
Review: First, this book is 4 stars not due to a flaw in the book, but due to the fact that the book is only a reference. For me, if the book included some sections on the paradigm of functional and OO programming in Python or even how to realize OO patterns in Python... I'd have given it a 5. That said, if you are already a programmer, who knows C++ or Java or even just C... finally this is your book! It gets to the point on language constructs and some of the built-ins you'll be using. In the first 80 or so pages.. you learn Python. This is a book that meets my criteria: less than 200 pages, terse, clear and readable. The rest of the book I have only peeked at for now, but it will be used soon. This book is as good as Java in a Nutshell, which I think is one of the *best* Java language books around. This book ranks with: Java In a Nutshell, The C Programming Language (K&R), C a Reference Manual and The C++ ARM as being a great language reference for the target language. It is amazing that "programming for everybody" has meant bloated books with material that is second nature to programmers, thus excluding programmers from the "everybody" set. This book fixes that.
| 
