Rating: 
Summary: flawed, but unique subject coverage, at for Python books
Review: The author clearly knows his subject. His capacity to communicate it to Joe Programmer is more doubtful. For example, he uses smart ASCII formatting examples several times. Does he _clearly_ define that format somewhere? Nope, the reader is assumed to magically know/guess its syntax, though several entries for "smart ASCII" in the index will first lead him to believe a definition does exist in the book. Your mileage may vary, but I found the explanations difficult to "get" and not very informative. The code is admittedly better. At 470+ pages, it is not a small book. Still, some core subjects are covered too lightly, with just enough coverage to whet your appetite and not enough to let you be productive right away. The chapter on the Python SimpleParse utility (on SourceForge) is a case in point: the program is very interesting, but sparsely documented. This book's coverage did not add much to the existing documentation. The first 100 or so pages cover some more or less relevant standard Python modules. Something other, more general, Python books do just as well, if not better. Thirty or more pages near the end are "a short impressionistic review of Python". What for? This book is not supposed to teach you Python, it is supposed to be a book about text processing, using Python. Additionally, the author has a great fondness for Functional Programming and talks about it at length as well. Bully for you if you like FP, too bad if you don't. If you are willing to put up with its quirks the book does cover a subject that few others do. However, a firmer hand from its editor would have resulted in a much better book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Advanced Python Book
Review: This book covers many of the details of processing text files to extract and/or generate more textual information from them. The author covers quite a number of advanced techniques, starting with an introduction to functional programming paradigms in the first few pages. Nothing in this book is truly new, but the author finds many ways of applying the things advanced Pythonistas already know to domains that they might otherwise not consider. This book is very dense, so don't expect to read it and get it in a weekend. And certainly, don't pick this up as a first programming in Python book. If you're just learning to program, consider "Learning Python" by Lutz or "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" (free web book -- search Google for it). If you already know programming, but need to learn Python, consider the Quick Python Book (old, but great) or "Dive into Python" (another free web book) for learning those. When the time comes that you want to write a small language of your own for your users (or when you need to support an existing small language), this book will be invaluable for telling you how to do this using Python. If you don't understand functional programming, but think you might like to learn it, use this book to teach you that. If you want to understand the regular expression library, use this book for that as well. However, the RE library examples do wrap the output in a special macro that's only likely to be useful for the purposes of the book. Understand that you're not likely to use the macro, and you'll be fine. The tremendous breadth and depth of this book makes me recommend it highly. But even if you're advanced, don't expect it to be light reading. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Great Advanced Python Book
Review: This book covers many of the details of processing text files to extract and/or generate more textual information from them. The author covers quite a number of advanced techniques, starting with an introduction to functional programming paradigms in the first few pages. Nothing in this book is truly new, but the author finds many ways of applying the things advanced Pythonistas already know to domains that they might otherwise not consider. This book is very dense, so don't expect to read it and get it in a weekend. And certainly, don't pick this up as a first programming in Python book. If you're just learning to program, consider "Learning Python" by Lutz or "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" (free web book -- search Google for it). If you already know programming, but need to learn Python, consider the Quick Python Book (old, but great) or "Dive into Python" (another free web book) for learning those. When the time comes that you want to write a small language of your own for your users (or when you need to support an existing small language), this book will be invaluable for telling you how to do this using Python. If you don't understand functional programming, but think you might like to learn it, use this book to teach you that. If you want to understand the regular expression library, use this book for that as well. However, the RE library examples do wrap the output in a special macro that's only likely to be useful for the purposes of the book. Understand that you're not likely to use the macro, and you'll be fine. The tremendous breadth and depth of this book makes me recommend it highly. But even if you're advanced, don't expect it to be light reading. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Guide
Review: This book is extremely well-written and, above all, USEFUL! Dr. Mertz approaches the problem of handling text from a fresh perspective. With illustrative examples in different styles (from procedural, functional and object-oriented programming perspectives; and occasionally even metaphysical!), this book actually causes you to think about the types of problems you encounter and provides criteria for deciding the best approach. The examples are short but by no means simple. Aside from a slight stylistic quibble I have with the second chapter, I heartily recommentd this book for those who wish to expand their knowledge of Python and enhance their repertoire of techniques. Try it - it's fun and enlightening!
Rating:
Summary: Very good, somewhat advanced
Review: This book is not for novice programmers. However, if you are an reasonably experienced programmer in Python, or any other language for that matter, this book will serve you very well. Text processing is probably the most common use for Python.
Mertz is an exceptionally smart guy. A few of the things in this book were over my head, but most of it was not. He offers terrific insights into programming in general, and probably the best Python overview / tutorial I have ever seen (in one of the Appendices).
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't really teach you much!
Review: This book is not for people that are new to programming. It is also not for people new to Python. I have difficulties figuring out whom it was intended for. If you are an experienced programmer and want to learn something about Python, read the tutorial that comes with Python or any other online tutorial that is out there.
The title of the book is very much missleading too. If you think that the book has anything to do with text processing in the sense of linguistics, you are mistaken. It just means that it deals with "few" questions related to doing things with text files: hence text processing. Only 17 pages are dedicated to XML, which is too short and another big shortcoming of the book.
It is over priced in my opinion for the small amount of information that it transfers. And it made me really mad to find out that the book is available online too. Don't get me wrong. It is OK to buy books if they are available in print. But they have to offer something. This book is absolutely worth it, maybe if you can scan over some pages once in a while. But you are throwing out your money if you pay for it.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't really teach you much!
Review: This is the only book that really attacks the issue of string processing using Python. Unfortunately it didn't attack the text processing problems that I wanted discussed. Also, in the area of Regular Expressions the examples didn't directly use the Python library, instead a wrap around function was used for the many examples and that detracted from using the book as a reference book for this purpose. I found that Python has several different ways to do string processing. Also, some of those ways come up with conflicting results. At the time of this writing the authors of Python are re-organizing and improving this area. What is truly great about the book is the discussion of state machines, parsers, and functional programming. Although these topics detract from the focus on string processing somewhat this book is perhaps the only popular Python book out there that does these topics justice. I thought they were very well written. My overall complaint is that this book includes too many things outside of text processing using the core Python language. But other readers may appreciate this aspect more than I did. If you want coverage on handling email specifically, the author covers that. Same with HTML processing and other specialized topics. I just wanted to low down on using the full string processing capabilities of the core Python language -- not necessarily all the specialized libraries. I found string processing to be messy with Python but found Ruby to be much easier. That is perhaps because Ruby is a newer language and it has some features of Perl built in. Ruby however does not have the extent of libraries available like Python, nor does it have as nice of Windows GUI. Overall, if you are looking for a book on text processing this is the only book out there, and a big plus with this book is what you will learn on function programming, state machines and parsers. The author worked hard to produce a book in this specialized area. He has lots of code examples. Highly recommended for Python programmers. John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Rating: 
Summary: Round the world tour of string processing for Pythoneers
Review: This is the only book that really attacks the issue of string processing using Python. Unfortunately it didn't attack the text processing problems that I wanted discussed. Also, in the area of Regular Expressions the examples didn't directly use the Python library, instead a wrap around function was used for the many examples and that detracted from using the book as a reference book for this purpose. I found that Python has several different ways to do string processing. Also, some of those ways come up with conflicting results. At the time of this writing the authors of Python are re-organizing and improving this area. What is truly great about the book is the discussion of state machines, parsers, and functional programming. Although these topics detract from the focus on string processing somewhat this book is perhaps the only popular Python book out there that does these topics justice. I thought they were very well written. My overall complaint is that this book includes too many things outside of text processing using the core Python language. But other readers may appreciate this aspect more than I did. If you want coverage on handling email specifically, the author covers that. Same with HTML processing and other specialized topics. I just wanted to low down on using the full string processing capabilities of the core Python language -- not necessarily all the specialized libraries. I found string processing to be messy with Python but found Ruby to be much easier. That is perhaps because Ruby is a newer language and it has some features of Perl built in. Ruby however does not have the extent of libraries available like Python, nor does it have as nice of Windows GUI. Overall, if you are looking for a book on text processing this is the only book out there, and a big plus with this book is what you will learn on function programming, state machines and parsers. The author worked hard to produce a book in this specialized area. He has lots of code examples. Highly recommended for Python programmers. John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book
Review: Yes, I mean it: this is a beautiful book. If your aesthetic sensibilities have been informed, directly or indirectly, by Kernighan and Ritchie's influential book on C, you'll know what I mean. I've been programming computers in various capacities since I was in my early teens (the mid-1970s) and I've been through a number of languages. Not long ago I discovered Python, and I suspect I won't need to learn any other languages for quite a long time. Guido van Rossum is a wizard. If you're interested in learning Python, don't start here. If you've got some programming background already, Guido's tutorial (which comes bundled with the Python download) will be enough to get you rolling. I personally recommend all of O'Reilly's books on the subject (_Learning Python_ for the absolute beginner, Mark Lutz's idiosyncratic but highly useful _Programming Python_ for the next level up, the magisterial _Python Cookbook_ for pretty much anybody, and the _Nutshell_ book to be placed permanently next to your keyboard). There are others as well, and after you've gotten started, you'll be a better judge than I am of what will be most useful to you. (But I'd skip the vastly overpriced and not-very-deep _Python Programming Patterns_ unless you can buy it used.) This one's for later; although it does offer some beginning instruction in Python, it isn't really an introductory book. However, if you do any text processing with Python -- which you almost undoubtedly do if you use Python at all -- then you _do_ want this book even if you don't know it yet. Most of what you'll want to know is in chapter two, which sets out the basics of string processing in Python. The other, fancier stuff in the later chapters may be handy sometimes, but author David Mertz himself will tell you not to overcomplicate things; if you can do what you need to do using string operations, do so. Read the rest of it too, though. There's good stuff here on e.g. regular expressions and parsing that you'll find interesting and possibly useful. Just don't rush out and start trying to apply it when it isn't necessary. Mertz is an excellent teacher. He tends to approach things from a foundation of "functional programming" -- of which I'm not particularly a fan, but he has a healthy sense of its limitations and his comments on the subject are refreshing. (If you're interested in functional programming, get a book on Haskell, which is actually a very cool language. But me, I like imperative languages just fine and I don't have any problem with "side effects" as long as they're deliberate or at least controlled.) At any rate, Mertz won't lock you in to a functional approach, but he will teach you some function-oriented stuff that will be useful to you no matter what your preferred programming style. And his exposition is well organized and wonderfully lucid. If you're the sort of person who likes books that have a chapter zero, you'll enjoy his style. Unless you have a strong programming background, then, you probably won't want to start your Python bookshelf with this one. But I recommend making it one of your first five.
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