A Gem of a Book (with minor flaws)

This is a well presented, well paced introduction to network programming in Python. He presents programs both as interactive sessions (follow along in the comfort of home) and as scripts (programs) available to download from his web site at Apress.

It serves as a good, general purpose, introduction to network programming as wall as a Python-specific network programming tutorial.

I do, however, have some complaints. Although the author attempts to present information in a platform-neutral manner, it is obvious that he is much more familiar with *nixes than with Windows. There are several minor factual errors in the Windows information he presents. [I have submitted these as error reports on the Apress web site.]

Fortunately none of these disrupt the actual presentation. Experienced Windows programmers will be able to correct the mistakes on-the fly. As a minor example, Windows programmers know they can type "script.py" to run a python program even though Windows doesn't honor the #! line at the beginning of the script.

My other complaint has to do with the use of PyDNS to discuss DNS issues. As far as I can tell PyDNS is dead, or at least it is dying. dnspython would have been a much better choice. However given that the book is three years old, I can't really fault the author for picking the wrong package -- it's happened to all of us at some point in our careers.

And a truly minor quibble: he starts with an example of downloading a file using the gopher protocol. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a gopher server now days

Other Reviews

• Excellent Book, Highly Recommended For Any Python Programming
• Helpful for this beginner
• A Gem of a Book (with minor flaws)