Programming Python

If you've mastered Python's fundamentals, you're ready to start using it to get real work done. Programming Python will show you how, with in-depth tutorials on the language's primary application domains: system administration, GUIs, and the Web. You'll also explore how Python is used in databases, networking, front-end scripting layers, text processing, and more. This book focuses on commonly used tools and libraries to give you a comprehensive understanding of Python’s many roles in practical, real-world programming.
You'll learn language syntax and programming techniques in a clear and concise manner, with lots of examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. Completely updated for version 3.x, Programming Python also delves into the language as a software development tool, with many code examples scaled specifically for that purpose.

Topics include:
* Quick Python tour: Build a simple demo that includes data representation, object-oriented programming, object persistence, GUIs, and website basics
* System programming: Explore system interface tools and techniques for command-line scripting, processing files and folders, running programs in parallel, and more
* GUI programming: Learn to use Python’s tkinter widget library
* Internet programming: Access client-side network protocols and email tools, use CGI scripts, and learn website implementation techniques
* More ways to apply Python: Implement data structures, parse text-based information, interface with databases, and extend and embed Python

Preface;
"And Now for Something Completely Different...";
About This Book;
About This Fourth Edition;
What's Left, Then?;
Python 3.X Impacts on This Book;
Using Book Examples;
Contacting O'Reilly;
Conventions Used in This Book;
Acknowledgments;
The Beginning;
Chapter 1: A Sneak Preview;
1.1 "Programming Python: The Short Story";
1.2 The Task;
1.3 Step 1: Representing Records;
1.4 Step 2: Storing Records Persistently;
1.5 Step 3: Stepping Up to OOP;
1.6 Step 4: Adding Console Interaction;
1.7 Step 5: Adding a GUI;
1.8 Step 6: Adding a Web Interface;
1.9 The End of the Demo;
System Programming;
Chapter 2: System Tools;
2.1 "The os.path to Knowledge";
2.2 System Scripting Overview;
2.3 Introducing the sys Module;
2.4 Introducing the os Module;
Chapter 3: Script Execution Context;
3.1 "I'd Like to Have an Argument, Please";
3.2 Current Working Directory;
3.3 Command-Line Arguments;
3.4 Shell Environment Variables;
3.5 Standard Streams;
Chapter 4: File and Directory Tools;
4.1 "Erase Your Hard Drive in Five Easy Steps!";
4.2 File Tools;
4.3 Directory Tools;
Chapter 5: Parallel System Tools;
5.1 "Telling the Monkeys What to Do";
5.2 Forking Processes;
5.3 Threads;
5.4 Program Exits;
5.5 Interprocess Communication;
5.6 The multiprocessing Module;
5.7 Other Ways to Start Programs;
5.8 A Portable Program-Launch Framework;
5.9 Other System Tools Coverage;
Chapter 6: Complete System Programs;
6.1 "The Greps of Wrath";
6.2 A Quick Game of "Find the Biggest Python File";
6.3 Splitting and Joining Files;
6.4 Generating Redirection Web Pages;
6.5 A Regression Test Script;
6.6 Copying Directory Trees;
6.7 Comparing Directory Trees;
6.8 Searching Directory Trees;
6.9 Visitor: Walking Directories "++";
6.10 Playing Media Files;
6.11 Automated Program Launchers (External);
GUI Programming;
Chapter 7: Graphical User Interfaces;
7.1 "Here's Looking at You, Kid";
7.2 Python GUI Development Options;
7.3 tkinter Overview;
7.4 Climbing the GUI Learning Curve;
7.5 tkinter Coding Alternatives;
7.6 Adding Buttons and Callbacks;
7.7 Adding User-Defined Callback Handlers;
7.8 Adding Multiple Widgets;
7.9 Customizing Widgets with Classes;
7.10 Reusable GUI Components with Classes;
7.11 The End of the Tutorial;
7.12 Python/tkinter for Tcl/Tk Converts;
Chapter 8: A tkinter Tour, Part 1;
8.1 "Widgets and Gadgets and GUIs, Oh My!";
8.2 Configuring Widget Appearance;
8.3 Top-Level Windows;
8.4 Dialogs;
8.5 Binding Events;
8.6 Message and Entry;
8.7 Checkbutton, Radiobutton, and Scale;
8.8 Running GUI Code Three Ways;
8.9 Images;
8.10 Viewing and Processing Images with PIL;
Chapter 9: A tkinter Tour, Part 2;
9.1 "On Today's Menu: Spam, Spam, and Spam";
9.2 Menus;
9.3 Listboxes and Scrollbars;
9.4 Text;
9.5 Canvas;
9.6 Grids;
9.7 Time Tools, Threads, and Animation;
9.8 The End of the Tour;
Chapter 10: GUI Coding Techniques;
10.1 "Building a Better Mousetrap";
10.2 GuiMixin: Common Tool Mixin Classes;
10.3 GuiMaker: Automating Menus and Toolbars;
10.4 ShellGui: GUIs for Command-Line Tools;
10.5 GuiStreams: Redirecting Streams to Widgets;
10.6 Reloading Callback Handlers Dynamically;
10.7 Wrapping Up Top-Level Window Interfaces;
10.8 GUIs, Threads, and Queues;
10.9 More Ways to Add GUIs to Non-GUI Code;
10.10 The PyDemos and PyGadgets Launchers;
Chapter 11: Complete GUI Programs;
11.1 "Python, Open Source, and Camaros";
11.2 PyEdit: A Text Editor Program/Object;
11.3 PyPhoto: An Image Viewer and Resizer;
11.4 PyView: An Image and Notes Slideshow;
11.5 PyDraw: Painting and Moving Graphics;
11.6 PyClock: An Analog/Digital Clock Widget;
11.7 PyToe: A Tic-Tac-Toe Game Widget;
11.8 Where to Go from Here;
Internet Programming;
Chapter 12: Network Scripting;
12.1 "Tune In, Log On, and Drop Out";
12.2 Python Internet Development Options;
12.3 Plumbing the Internet;
12.4 Socket Programming;
12.5 Handling Multiple Clients;
12.6 Making Sockets Look Like Files and Streams;
12.7 A Simple Python File Server;
Chapter 13: Client-Side Scripting;
13.1 "Socket to Me!";
13.2 FTP: Transferring Files over the Net;
13.3 Transferring Files with ftplib;
13.4 Transferring Directories with ftplib;
13.5 Transferring Directory Trees with ftplib;
13.6 Processing Internet Email;
13.7 POP: Fetching Email;
13.8 SMTP: Sending Email;
13.9 email: Parsing and Composing Mail Content;
13.10 A Console-Based Email Client;
13.11 The mailtools Utility Package;
13.12 NNTP: Accessing Newsgroups;
13.13 HTTP: Accessing Websites;
13.14 The urllib Package Revisited;
13.15 Other Client-Side Scripting Options;
Chapter 14: The PyMailGUI Client;
14.1 "Use the Source, Luke";
14.2 Major PyMailGUI Changes;
14.3 A PyMailGUI Demo;
14.4 PyMailGUI Implementation;
14.5 Ideas for Improvement;
Chapter 15: Server-Side Scripting;
15.1 "Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave";
15.2 What's a Server-Side CGI Script?;
15.3 Running Server-Side Examples;
15.4 Climbing the CGI Learning Curve;
15.5 Saving State Information in CGI Scripts;
15.6 The Hello World Selector;
15.7 Refactoring Code for Maintainability;
15.8 More on HTML and URL Escapes;
15.9 Transferring Files to Clients and Servers;
Chapter 16: The PyMailCGI Server;
16.1 "Things to Do When Visiting Chicago";
16.2 The PyMailCGI Website;
16.3 The Root Page;
16.4 Sending Mail by SMTP;
16.5 Reading POP Email;
16.6 Processing Fetched Mail;
16.7 Utility Modules;
16.8 Web Scripting Trade-Offs;
Tools and Techniques;
Chapter 17: Databases and Persistence;
17.1 "Give Me an Order of Persistence, but Hold the Pickles";
17.2 Persistence Options in Python;
17.3 DBM Files;
17.4 Pickled Objects;
17.5 Shelve Files;
17.6 The ZODB Object-Oriented Database;
17.7 SQL Database Interfaces;
17.8 ORMs: Object Relational Mappers;
17.9 PyForm: A Persistent Object Viewer (External);
Chapter 18: Data Structures;
18.1 "Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue; Lists Are Mutable, and So Is Set Foo";
18.2 Implementing Stacks;
18.3 Implementing Sets;
18.4 Subclassing Built-in Types;
18.5 Binary Search Trees;
18.6 Graph Searching;
18.7 Permuting Sequences;
18.8 Reversing and Sorting Sequences;
18.9 PyTree: A Generic Tree Object Viewer;
Chapter 19: Text and Language;
19.1 "See Jack Hack. Hack, Jack, Hack";
19.2 Strategies for Processing Text in Python;
19.3 String Method Utilities;
19.4 Regular Expression Pattern Matching;
19.5 XML and HTML Parsing;
19.6 Advanced Language Tools;
19.7 Custom Language Parsers;
19.8 PyCalc: A Calculator Program/Object;
Chapter 20: Python/C Integration;
20.1 "I Am Lost at C";
20.2 Extending Python in C: Overview;
20.3 A Simple C Extension Module;
20.4 The SWIG Integration Code Generator;
20.5 Wrapping C Environment Calls;
20.6 Wrapping C++ Classes with SWIG;
20.7 Other Extending Tools;
20.8 Embedding Python in C: Overview;
20.9 Basic Embedding Techniques;
20.10 Registering Callback Handler Objects;
20.11 Using Python Classes in C;
20.12 Other Integration Topics;
The End;
Chapter 21: Conclusion: Python and the Development Cycle;
21.1 "That's the End of the Book, Now Here's the Meaning of Life";
21.2 "Something's Wrong with the Way We Program Computers";
21.3 The "Gilligan Factor";
21.4 Doing the Right Thing;
21.5 Enter Python;
21.6 But What About That Bottleneck?;
21.7 On Sinking the Titanic;
21.8 "So What's Python?": The Sequel;
21.9 In the Final Analysis...;
Colophon;