Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book if you're an experienced programmer
Review: This book seems to be geared at newbie programmers. If you're an experienced programmer seeking to add another language to your stack don't buy this book. It won't teach you a lot. You'll try to find an answer to your how-do-I-do-this-in-python question in the 1000+ pages and odds are you won't find it. Get a reference manual instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Not particularly useful
Review: While inevitably there will be some who find Lutz' Python books useful, I did not. Coming from a reasonably broad background in programming languages from assembly language, to Pascal, Fortran, C/C++, Awk, Perl, and a few others, including Forth-like oddities such as Postscript and, well, Forth, I found Mark Lutz earlier two books on Python to be either pedantic and uninteresting, or superficial and uninteresting. Neither provided much in the way of insight into the nature of the language, or a good feel for its capabilities. Subsequently, I gave both of my Lutz' volumes to a friend who expressed an interest in Python, with a warning that I did not find them particularly helpful or interesting. By contrast, the python.org web site has excellent tutorials and online documentation, and I am also quite pleased with Beazley's "Essential Python Reference".
Rating:
Summary: Not Pleased
Review: Do not buy this book if you want to learn about python. It is not useful as a python reference, or python tutorial. It is basically a tutorial on various other topics eg: system programming, GUI programming and networking which just happens to use python as it's language of choice. If you want to learn about these things then this might be a worthwhile buy. But you will need to be prepared to put up with Mark Lutz's long winded (and to me very annoying) writing style. If you want to learn this (fantastic) language, my suggestion is to print out the docs on the official web site. They're good.
Rating: 
Summary: Good coverage of Python applications
Review: I knew the python basics and bought this one to get a feel of python applications. I used Core python programming which badly lacks advanced examples though it does a good job of explaining the basics. Started off with python-GUI coverage of this book and i found it to be excellent. It's covers all application of the language in-depth! Buy this but make sure that you know the language basics first. This has been made clear by the author too right in the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: Only useful if you already know Python -- maybe.
Review: I was quite disappointed when I realized that this book was not going to teach me Python. It is made very clear, very quickly, that the audience is expected already to be familiar with the actual language (its syntax, its runtime, its class system, etc.). My difficulty is not due to a lack of programming experience, programming is what I do. The information simply is not in the book, as its introduction makes plain. The authors appear to hope not to cannibalize sales of their other title, Learning Python. So who should be buying this? It's just not clear to me. The first section spends most of its time explaining things like piping and stdio -- that is, things that have everything to do with the host OS and little or nothing to do with the Python language. Surely a somewhat experienced Python programmer should already know such things, or at least should expect to learn them from another book. Can't tell you about further chapters, I've put the book aside for now. Hopefully David Beazley's Python Essential Reference will be more useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat dissapointed
Review: I read the whole book and I am a relatively good Python coder, so this is not just some "quick impression" of the book, which is what some of the previous reviewers seem to be doing. The author is indeed knowledgeable about Python, but there is something wrong with his writing style and presentation. The sample source code is useful and shows how to do useful things in Python, but the writing is not clear and seems long winded and pointless at times. Often the author will simply say something like "I won't elaborate any further, just read the source code yourself". If you are already an experienced Python developer, then you might find the real life sample application presented here useful, otherwise this is not quality technical writing. Part of the problem is that the author is trying to present "real life" code, which course can be somewhat messy, so his organization seems less than optimal. If you want to learn about Python, try "Core Python" by Wesley Chun.
Rating: 
Summary: I can no longer complain about documentation
Review: I love Python more than even Quake, but have complained to friends about difficulties finding documentation good enough to get through my particularly thick skull. Now I'll have to find something else to complain about, because this book (as well as a few others out now) address this concern. I consider myself a Python newbie and haven't even mastered the entire language yet, but this book had me coding CGI in one session, and actually understanding what I was doing. If you are new to programming and looking for a starter book, this isn't it. But if you have a fair understanding of Python basics, you may find this book to be a really great advanced tutorial on how to use Python for all sorts of programming tasks.
Rating:
Summary: Very Impressive
Review: Having come from the land of Perl I was a bit nervous about learning Python. I cannot imagine how a book could be more thorough than this one. Although it is lengthy (1200+ pages), there are hardly any topics that it does not cover. I was particularly interested in the way GUI programs are used throughout the book. My bible, the Camel book, does not approach it this way. Overall, a great resource for anyone wanting to learn Python.
Rating:
Summary: Promising....
Review: I found "programming Python", 1st edition, from Mark Lutz, difficult to read...its strengh: it was the most complete book at the time it was written. The 2nd chapter, which was intended to be a 'sneak preview of Python' or 'a view from 10.000 feet' was very long, and tedious to understand.. I guess that 10000 feet, it's too high for my poor stomach. There were even backward references to this chapter from many other chapters... The other pb was the organization... difficult to look up things, and it was the same example which was extended all along the book. But it was not intended to be a reference book...rather a 'linear book'. The second edition seems to be better organized, but once again, Ive just read a small fraction of it (it's 1200 pages long... i guess it will take a month at best). Anyway, it is stated in the introduction that it is still not a reference book. The book presents Python's libraries, tools and programming techniques. Its aim is "how to use the Core language in applications." So, there are many big examples... in fact, it took Mark 2 years to write these ones(PyDraw, a paint program, PyEdit : a text file Editor, PyCalc, PyMail, PyClock...etc..) The book is therefore intended for those who already know the Core Language and want to see some real applications using it... the book was refocused, since the 1st edition, and it is not aimed at beginners (it's why it's better to read the 'learning Python' book first). I find it to be a good sequel of the online tutorial, if U already have some background in programmation, and want how to use Python. I was happy to see that 'The view from 10000 feet' was removed, and chapter 2 is now fun to read, because it presents the libraries, so it's not so steep,....so, good work, Mark! I ve only read 3 chapters up to now but it seems very promising.. Maybe it's too thick for a Python book ? Life is short !? But i think it's still the most complete book about Python...
Rating:
Summary: Disregard all previous reviews
Review: The reason for my bold assertion that you should disregard all previous reviews is that they refer to the first edition of the book. This second edition has been completely rewritten and is almost entirely a different book. I understand it is more clearly focused at experienced programmers, preferably with some knowledge of Python already. I've only read the sample chapter available on O'Reilly's website, but if the quality of the rest of the book is as high, then I reckon it will warrant the 5 stars I've awarded.
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