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Rating: 
Summary: Enterprise Open Source...for real
Review: I don't know of any better book for those who need a quick start on serious applications using the Linux platform. It was written from the trenches, by experts in the subject who are not afraid of getting their hands dirty. The authors demonstrate a deep understanding of the details and have managed to keep a practical perspective. I haven't tested the code examples (bugs?), but the framework is extremely easy to use and very clever. I wish more books on Business Management and new technologies were written like this...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: One of the best books around on web programming. A must-read for any programmer trying to build e-commerce applications.
Rating:
Summary: Best kept secret in web programming
Review: Talk about a sleeper! This book may be one of the best kept secrets in the world of Web programming books. It could be described as Web programming with Python and Open Source tools. In the hands of most authors, this much breadth would produce a multi-volume set of books complete with material that could readily be found elsewhere. The reader is fortunate that it was written and edited by educators who know how to present the pertinent and relevant details of the OS, the Shell, the Python language, Apache, SQL. Lesser books give you the world but require the reader to determine what is relevant and how to use the features described. The manuscript is original and efficient; definitely not a regurgitation of material available on the Web. The advanced sections pertaining to the development of an application server are rich with good programming methodologies. However, some chapters may be exceedingly routine for intermediate and/or advanced server-side programmers. The book could be described as a "LAMP" developer guide for novices (where the P stands for Python not Perl).
A previous reviewer cited some typos. In an effort to keep that comment in perspective, I believe the number of errors for this amount of breadth + depth is very low.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprising breadth well explained
Review: This book covers everything about getting a web application together. If you accept the Python Way, (a wise idea I think) you could look at the book as an attempted successor to Lincoln Stein's original compendium about how to serve web applications from top to bottom.If you're a person who knows something about programming in general but not enough about programming for the web in specific, this book is just the thing to help you identify and fill in the gaps. I do have a complaint that the writing could have been a bit smoother and the editing a bit more careful. A far more serious flaw, though, is the authors' failure to keep the software framework on which the book is based up-to-date. The upshot is that while the book is very informative, it's unfortunately quite a slog getting the examples working. While I recommend the book for its explanatory power, unfortunately it doesn't provide a direct path to getting your project online. If the framework were better maintained and documented, this could still turn out to be the only book you need.
Rating: 
Summary: I could have been a very good book
Review: This book had the right idea and its basic outline was well thought out. But when I tried some of the examples I found too many errors. There is no web site support for the errors in the code examples, or exercises by the author or publisher. So you are on your own.
In all fairness, the book contains a good presentation to Python, Linux and MySQL, and a good basic explanation of the Internet, Apache and CGI. However, I think most of us learn best by trying out the exercises after reading the theory, and it is here where the book is weak. Because there are too few complete exercises, many errors, no errata, and lack of web support I cannot recommend this book. Also, some of the exercises require the "Slither" libraries, which do not seem to be supported any longer. Furthermore, I haven't been able to find a place to download the code in this book.
Rating:
Summary: very broad but very effective
Review: This book is surprising in its breadth of coverage (Python basics,
Python advanced topics, MySQL, Apache/CGI and net infrastructure) and
the depth of coverage of each. It is a great single reference for
coming up to speed on each aspect such that you could actually
implement a medium-sized web application based largely on
just what is in the book. For those that are already familiar with
any of these topics, that chapter can easily be skipped. This book
is not for the complete beginner though as it would be impossible
to cover so much ground if it were written with the Dummies mindset.
Overall, it does a very good job explaining subtle points that an
experienced programmer would want to know as they attempted to
implement a first application with these technologies. Good job.
Rating:
Summary: very broad but very effective
Review: This book is surprising in its breadth of coverage (Python basics,
Python advanced topics, MySQL, Apache/CGI and net infrastructure) and
the depth of coverage of each. It is a great single reference for
coming up to speed on each aspect such that you could actually
implement a medium-sized web application based largely on
just what is in the book. For those that are already familiar with
any of these topics, that chapter can easily be skipped. This book
is not for the complete beginner though as it would be impossible
to cover so much ground if it were written with the Dummies mindset.
Overall, it does a very good job explaining subtle points that an
experienced programmer would want to know as they attempted to
implement a first application with these technologies. Good job.
Rating: 
Summary: Where are they now?
Review: This books was a major disappointment. The ideas seem pretty solid, but the book no longer matches the code that is available online. The downloads are a mess. The book says to install slither using the instructions in the download, but there are no instructions in the download. Two users posted requests over a year ago for these instructions and the requests were totally ignored. In fact not much has happened over the past year. It really seems as if the authors have moved on. Slither seems to be dead. On another note - this book is very academic. For example, there is a couple of pages of discussion about the different theorectical ways to design databases. But my needs are so simple, that I already knew I was going to use MySQL, so I just did not care about this discussion. Unfortunately there are lots of discussions like that in this book. So if you just wanna get something done fast, this might not be the book for you.
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