Review: Beyond the basic stuff with python

Before I start I want to say that I feel this is an excellent book, but before you consider buying it you should ask yourselves this question:

Is this book for you?

People in the start of their programming career, whether they are studying, self taught or have just used some basic programming for their needs will benefit most from this book.

It covers best practices and basics, which are best consumed after you’ve learned what variables, loops, conditions, basic data types and functions are. If you have for instance just gone through your first programming class or just read the Python Crash course this book is for you, and I can 100% recommend it.

Who will not benefit from this book?

If you’re already in a too advanced state, and have read a book about clean code like (Clean Code or Java by Comparison), know how inheritance and Object Oriented Principles works, used StackOverflow and Git then this book will not be your ideal companion. If you’re in such a state I would recommend you get a book more focused on the in and outs of python like “Fluent Python”.

If you are just starting out with python and want to learn the syntax first then I recommend you start with the Python Crash Course 2nd Edition, before going into this book.

Do I think this is a good book?

Hell yes I do. Even though it’s not for me (Ironically it’s too basic for me) and I skimmed through it in a day. But I have some friends who just started their Software Development journey (University and College) who will greatly benefit from it and who it will make a great gift. It’s well written and filled with useful knowledge if you’re starting out like:

Setting up your environment, What to do when you’re stuck, how to ask for help, how to do error handling, how to name your variables and format your code, how to measure the performance of your code, what is version control and how to use git and the basics of OOP.

This book would have been an excellent enhancement to the first two semesters of a Software Development University.

It doesn’t just go though the how to do x but explains why to do x.

Overall: I’ve been pretty happy with the books published by no starch press and it continues to be my favourite publisher.