This Book's Scope

Although this book covers all the essentials of the Python language, we've kept its scope narrow in the interest of speed and size. To keep things simple, this book focuses on core concepts, uses small and self-contained examples to illustrate points, and sometimes omits the small details that are readily available in reference manuals. Because of that, this book is probably best described as both an introduction and a stepping stone to more advanced and complete texts.

For example, we won't say much about Python/C integration—a complex topic, which is nevertheless central to many Python-based systems. We also won't talk much about Python's history or development processes. And popular Python applications such as GUIs, system tools, and network scripting get only a short survey, if they are mentioned at all. Naturally, this scope misses some of the big picture.

By and large, Python is about raising the quality bar a few notches in the scripting world. Some of its ideas require more context than can be provided here, and we'd be remiss if we didn't recommend further study after you finish this book. We hope that most readers of this book will eventually go on to gain a more complete understanding of application-level programming from other texts.

Because of its beginners' focus, Learning Python is designed to be naturally complimented by O'Reilly's other Python books. For instance, Programming Python, Second Edition provides larger and more advanced application-level examples, and was explicitly designed to be a follow-up text to the one you are reading now. Roughly, the second editions of Learning Python and Programming Python reflect the two halves of Mark's training materials—the core language and applications programming. In addition, O'Reilly's Python Pocket Reference, Second Edition, serves as a quick reference supplement for looking up the fine details we will largely skip here.

Other followup Python books can also help provide additional examples, explore specific Python domains, and serve as references. We recommend O'Reilly's Python in a Nutshell and New Riders' Python Essential Reference as references, and O'Reilly's Python Cookbook as an example library. Regardless of which books you choose, you should keep in mind that the rest of the Python story requires studying examples that are more realistic than there is space for here. There are roughly 40 English language Python books available today, along with a few dozen foreign language texts. Because books are a subjective experience, we invite you to browse all available texts to find one that suits your needs.

But despite its limited scope (and perhaps because of it), we think you'll find this book to be a good first text on Python. You'll learn everything you need to get started writing useful standalone Python programs and scripts. By the time you've finished this book, you will have learned not only the language itself, but also how to apply it to day-to-day tasks. And you'll be equipped to tackle more advanced topics and examples as they come your way.