Python Programming on Win32

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad book
Review: As I say in the title this is not a bad book. It's just not what I expected. The title is a bit of a misnomer, perhaps it should have been called "COM programming with Python". I had hoped to find some useful stuff on how to write GUI applications for Win32 but that topic was just slightly more than 40 pages in a book with over 600 pages. Still, I'd recommend it to anyone running Python on a Win32 platform.

Rating:
Summary: Python and Win32 for Pinheads
Review: If you know nothing about Python, Visual Basic, scripting languages, Win32 API, MFC, COM, active scripting, Windows Networking and NT administration, then after you've read this book you'll get some very general idea of what these all are about: this book covers them all, as well as many other things. But whenever it comes to tell you something really interesting, authors just say: "well, it's out of the scope of this book, so let's stop here..."

However, there are things this book does not cover. For instance, I thought scripting languages are a handy tool for text processing, but throughout this book I encountered only one mention of regular expressions - in the context of filtering file names, and you won't find regular expressions in the Index. From 10-page Chapter "Working with Email" you'll learn what SMTP and POP3 stand for, and from 15-page Appendix(!) "Threads" you'll learn that Python has something to do with threads, and fairly much about COM threading model.

Information in this 650-page book can fit a dozen-page article. Most of all this book looks like a slide show for marketing, trying to convince them that Python is the answer to all questions. And most of the time it sounds like: "It's easy, we won't tell you exactly what and how, but for smart guys like us who can read man pages, it's very easy."

Rating:
Summary: Very good, misses a few spots
Review: Python is the best choice for people who want to implement COM in the software they develop - mostly due to its clear structure and object - oriented nature. This is where this book mostly comes.

This book is well-written, practical-oriented and ideal for the newbie programmer who has already some idea over Python (O'Reilly's 'Learning Python' is the best place to start).

However, even experienced programmers need it because it provides a set of useful examples for rapid prototyping and reuse components.

It misses a few spots - First, you can't find much help on working on GUIs - and second (and most important) SWIG does not get the attention it deserves - it is just mentioned.

Finally, if you use Python in Win32 - or if you cannot decide what kind of COM solution you wish to develop - DO NOT CONSIDER TAKING A STEP WITHOUT THIS BOOK !

Rating:
Summary: Essential Python + Windows Book
Review: this book covers it all: com, dcom, database, etc. Whatever question you may have had about Python's capabilities & how to get the most from it on the Windows platform are answered here. The authors should be commended on such a fine offering. Books like this solidify O'Reilly's reputation as the premiere publisher of Computer books.

Rating:
Summary: Not for learning Python or programmin on Win32
Review: This books is neither a Python tutorial book nor a Windows programming book. The title of this book greatly mis-represents the contents.

If you are not a Windows COM programmer who's trying to learn Python or are trying develop Python applications on other platforms, please look for other Python books.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, and a key reference
Review: Within a few hours of acquiring this book, it had enabled me to finish a project and save myself a lot of embarrassment at work.

The authors give is a detailed introduction to Python for Win32 developers - covering both system administration and back-end and front-end application development. It also provides an excellent introduction to COM (the Python/COM interface is the key component of the Win32 extensions). There is a nice progression from introductory material to quite advanced topics such as implementing NT services, or COM threading.

The range of topics covered is surprisingly broad. Also, the case studies are nice, and far from trivial: e.g. an accounting system that scripts Word and Excel, an invoicing system that produces PDF output.

The design of the Python Win32 extensions is admirable, so implementing COM clients in Python (e.g. scripting Excel) is simple - the online documentation is more than adequate. However, implementing COM servers (e.g. Excel-callable functions) is more subtle, and it would be unwise to attempt this without the information in this book. Hopefully a future edition will have more information on DCOM.

The section on GUI development is very helpful. I'm glad the authors covered wxPython as well as Tkinter - though less portable, wxPython is a much better framework on the Win32 platform.

There are some typos, but I haven't been confused by any so far.

The main difficulty with this book is that some of the information will become dated - the pace of development on both the Windows and Python sides seems to be rapid. Expect a second edition within a couple of years?