Professional Python

Python provides many tools and constructs for writing advancedbut concise and maintainable code. However, many Pythonprogrammers are unfamiliar with how to use them. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to give beginning andintermediate-level Python programmers the ability to writebetter architected and easier to understand applications byintroducing widely applicable language constructs that arerelatively easy to adopt and result in more robust and efficientapplications. The book covers a set of advanced Python functions,classes, and libraries, including: • Decorators • Context Managers • Generators • Magic Methods / Overloading • Class Factories • Metaclasses • Strings and bytestrings • Regular Expressions (re) The author also covers advanced tools for both developing andtesting Python apps, including: • Unit Testing & Mocking • CLI tools (optparse) • asyncio (Python 3.4 only) For each topic, the author will: • introduce the language constructs and librariesconceptually: i.e., explaining the “what” • explain “why” the construct can be useful,and importantly “when” (and when not) to use it • show “how” to code solutions using theseconstructs against real-world scenarios This book will, when versions of Python diverge, provideimplementation details for both, but for the most part willtake a "Python 3 first" approach to ensure the book remainsrelevant for a long time. It will also promote the use of six(http://pythonhosted.org/six/) for a single-source implementationwhere possible. All code examples in the book will be available on the book'scompanion website for download.