Python Essential Reference ^{2nd Ed.}

Updated to Python 2.1

Python Essential Reference, Second Edition, is the definitive guide to the Python Programming language. Designed for programmers, it covers the core language, more than 100 modules in the standard library, and the techniques used to extend Python with compiled procedures in C or C++. Coverage expands upon and clarifies existing Python documentation- especially for advanced topics, including operating system interfaces, threads, network programming, and Unicode

Concise, to the point, and extensively indexed, readers will find this volume packed with information not previously available in any other single reference source. Updated for Python 2.1, it is a must have for any serious programmer wanting to develop advanced Python applications.

As a comprehensive reference to the Python programming language, this book will help you:

• Learn about the features in Python 2.0 and Python 2.1;
• Master the details of Python types, operators, and the execution model;
• Discover the details of the Unicode and internationalization support;
• Learn the details of operating system interfaces, threads, and network programming modules;
• Quickly find information about advances topics not covered in the standard Python documentation;
• Build C/C++ extensions to Python;
• Make effective use of the Python library; and
• Find the information you need to start developing advanced Python applications.

1. A Tutorial Introduction
• Variables and Arithmetic Expressions
• Conditionals
• File Input and Output
• Strings
• Lists and Tuples
• Loops
• Dictionaries
• Functions
• Classes
• Exceptions
• Modules
2. Lexical Conventions and Syntax
• Line Structure and Indentation
• Identifiers and Reserved Words
• Literals
• Operators, Delimiters, and Special Symbols
• Documentation Strings
3. Types and Objects
• Terminology
• Object Identity and Type
• Reference Counting
• References and Copies
• Built-in Types
• The None Type
• Numeric Types
• Sequence Types
• Mapping Types
• Callable Types
• Modules
• Classes
• Class Instances
• Files
• Internal Types
• Special Methods
• Object Creation, Destruction, and Representation
• Attribute Access
• Sequence and Mapping Methods
• Mathematical Operations
• Comparison Operations
  
• Callable Objects
• Performance and Memory Considerations
4. Operators and Expressions
• Operations on Numbers
• Operations on Sequences
• Operations on Dictionaries
• Augmented Assignment
  
• The Attribute (.) Operator
• Type Conversion
• Unicode Strings
  
• Boolean Expressions and Truth Values
• Object Equality and Identity
• Order of Evaluation
• Conditionals
• Loops
  
5. Control Flow
• Exceptions
• Defining New Exceptions
• Assertions and __debug__
• Functions
6. Functions and Functional Programming
• Parameter Passing and Return Values
• Scoping Rules
• Recursion
  
• The apply() Function
• The lambda Operator
• map(), zip(), reduce(), and filter()
• List Comprehension
  
• eval(), exec, execfile(), and compile()
• The Class statement
  
7. Classes and Object-Oriented Programming
• Class Instances
• Reference Counting and Instance Destruction
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism
  
• Information Hiding
• Operator Overloading
• Classes, Types, and Membership Tests
8. Modules and Packages
• Modules
• The Module Search Path
• Module Loading and Compilation
• Module Reloading
• Packages
9. Input and Output
• Reading Options and Environment Variables
• Files
• Standard Input, Output, and Error
• The print Statement
• Persistence
• Unicode I/O
• Unicode Data Encoding
• Unicode Character Properties
  
10. Execution Environment
• Interpreter Options and Environment
• Interactive Sessions
• Launching Python Applications
• Site Configuration Files
• Enabling Future Features
  
• Program Termination

1. The Python Library
• Built-in Functions and Exceptions
• Built-in Functions
• Built-in Exceptions
• Python Services
• atexit
• copy
• copy_reg
• gc
  
• marshal
• new
• operator
• pickle and cPickle
• site
• sys
• traceback
• types
• warnings
• weakref
  
• UserDict, UserList, and UserString
  
• Mathematics
• array
• cmath
• math
• random
• String Handling
• codecs
• re
• string
• StringIO and cStringIO
• struct
• unicodedata
  
• Data Management and Object Persistence
• anydbm
• bsddb
• dbhash
• dbm
• dumbdbm
• gdbm
• shelve
• whichdb
• Operating System Services
• commands
• crypt
• errno
• fcnt1
• filecmp
• fileinput
• findertools
• fnmatch
• getopt
• getpass
• gettext
• glob
• grp
• gzip
• locale
• macfs
• macostools
• mmap
• msvcrt
• os
• os.path
• popen2
• pwd
• readline
• resource
• shutil
• signal
• stat
• statvfs
• tempfile
• termios
• time
• tty
• _winref
• zipfile
  
• zlib
• Threads
• Thread Basics
• Python Threads
• thread
• threading
• Queue
• Network Programming
• asyncore
• BaseHTTPServer
• cgi
• CGIHTTPServer
• ftplib
• httplib
• imaplib
• nntplib
• poplib
• robotparser
  
• select
• SimpleHTTPServer
• smtplib
• socket
• SocketServer
• urllib
• urlparse
• webbrowser
  
• Internet Data Handling and Encoding
• base64
• binascii
• binhex
• mailcap
• mimetools
• mimetypes
• MimeWriter
• multifile
• quopri
• rfc822
• uu
• xdrlib
• Restricted Execution
• rexec
• Bastion
• Miscellaneous Modules
• bisect
• cmd
• md5
• sha
• shlex
• The Python Debugger
• The Python Profiler
• profile
• pstats
• Undocumented Modules
• Python Services
• String Processing
• Operting System Modules
• Network
• Internet Data Handling
• Multimedia Services
• SGI Irix
• Sun-Specific Services
• Miscellaneous
2. Extending and Embedding Python
• Enabling Optional Modules
• Extension Module Example
• Compilation of Extensions
• Converting Data from Python to C
• Converting Data from C to Python
• Error Handling
• Reference Counting
• Abstract Object Layer
• Low-Level Functions on Built-in Types
• Defining New Types
• Special Methods for Types
• Threads
• Embedding
• Extension Building Tools
• Extension Classes
• CXX
• pyfort
• f2py
• Boost Python Library
• SWIG
3. Summary of Changes
• Python 1.6
• Python 2.0
• Python 2.1
  

A good reference

Excellent coverage of the standard Python library. Not really a book to read to learn Python the language, more a book to understand the finer point of application programming in Python.