Beginning Python	5
	About the Authors	7
	Credits	9
	Contents	13
	Acknowledgments	31
	Introduction	33
	What Is Python?	33
	The Benefits of Python	33
	Who This Book Is For	34
	What This Book Covers	35
	How This Book Is Structured	35
	What You Need to Use This Book	37
	Conventions	38
	On the Web Site	39
	Errata	39
	p2p.wrox.com	40
	Chapter 1: Programming Basics and Strings	41
	How Programming Is Different from Using a Computer	41
	The First Steps	43
	Beginning to Use Python — Strings	45
	Putting Two Strings Together	48
	Putting Strings Together in Different Ways	49
	Displaying Strings with Print	50
	Summary	50
	Exercises	51
	Chapter 2: Numbers and Operators	53
	Different Kinds of Numbers	53
	Program Files	55
	Using Numbers	61
	Summary	64
	Exercises	65
	Chapter 3: Variables — Names for Values	67
	Referring to Data — Using Names for Data	67
	Using More Built-in Types	70
	Other Common Sequence Properties	78
	Summary	81
	Exercises	82
	Chapter 4: Making Decisions	83
	Comparing Values — Are They the Same?	83
	Doing the Opposite — Not Equal	85
	Comparing Values — Which One Is More?	85
	Reversing True and False	87
	Looking for the Results of More Than One Comparison	88
	Repetition	91
	Handling Errors	95
	Summary	97
	Exercises	98
	Chapter 5: Functions	99
	Putting Your Program into Its Own File	99
	Functions: Grouping Code under a Name	101
	Layers of Functions	114
	Summary	115
	Exercises	116
	Chapter 6: Classes and Objects	119
	Thinking About Programming	119
	Defining a Class	121
	Summary	132
	Exercises	133
	Chapter 7: Organizing Programs	135
	Modules	136
	Packages	141
	Modules and Packages	143
	Basics of Testing Your Modules and Packages	146
	Summary	146
	Exercises	147
	Chapter 8: Files and Directories	149
	File Objects	149
	Paths and Directories	153
	Pickles	163
	Summary	165
	Exercises	165
	Chapter 9: Other Features of the Language	167
	Lambda and Filter: Short Anonymous Functions	167
	Reduce	168
	Map: Short-Circuiting Loops	169
	Decisions within Lists — List Comprehension	170
	Generating Lists for Loops	171
	Special String Substitution Using Dictionaries	173
	Featured Modules	174
	Summary	181
	Exercises	182
	Chapter 10: Building a Module	183
	Exploring Modules	183
	Creating Modules and Packages	190
	Working with Classes	191
	Finishing Your Modules	194
	Creating a Whole Module	205
	Installing Your Modules	210
	Summary	214
	Exercises	214
	Chapter 11: Text Processing	215
	Why Text Processing Is So Useful	215
	Navigating the File System with the os Module	218
	Working with Regular Expressions and the re Module	224
	Summary	229
	Exercises	229
	Chapter 12: Testing	231
	Assertions	231
	Test Cases and Test Suites	233
	Test Fixtures	236
	Putting It All Together with Extreme Programming	239
	Formal Testing in the Software Life Cycle	247
	Summary	248
	Chapter 13: Writing a GUI with Python	249
	GUI Programming Toolkits for Python	249
	PyGTK Introduction	250
	pyGTK Resources	251
	Creating GUI Widgets with pyGTK	253
	Using libGlade with Python	265
	A Glade Walkthrough	265
	Creating a Real Glade Application	271
	Advanced Widgets	278
	Further Enhancing PyRAP	281
	Summary	288
	Exercises	288
	Chapter 14: Accessing Databases	289
	Working with DBM Persistent Dictionaries	290
	Working with Relational Databases	295
	Using the Python Database APIs	302
	Summary	313
	Exercises	314
	Chapter 15: Using Python for XML	315
	What Is XML?	315
	What Is a Schema/DTD?	318
	Document Type Definitions	318
	Schemas	320
	XPath	322
	HTML as a Subset of XML	322
	XML Libraries Available for Python	325
	Validating XML Using Python	325
	What Is SAX?	327
	What Is DOM?	328
	Why Use SAX or DOM	329
	SAX and DOM Parsers Available for Python	329
	Intro to XSLT	333
	Using Python to Transform XML Using XSLT	334
	Putting It All Together: Working with RSS	336
	Summary	343
	Exercises	343
	Chapter 16: Network Programming	345
	Understanding Protocols	347
	Sending Internet E-mail	351
	Retrieving Internet E-mail	363
	Socket Programming	371
	Other Topics	390
	Summary	394
	Exercises	394
	Chapter 17: Extension Programming with C	395
	Extension Module Outline	396
	Building and Installing Extension Modules	398
	Passing Parameters from Python to C	400
	Returning Values from C to Python	403
	The LAME Project	404
	The LAME Extension Module	408
	Using Python Objects from C Code	420
	Summary	423
	Exercises	423
	Chapter 18: Writing Shareware and Commercial Programs	425
	A Case Study: Background	425
	How Much Python Should You Use?	426
	Pure Python Licensing	427
	Pricing Strategies	429
	Your Development Environment	435
	Finding Python Programmers	436
	Python Problems	437
	Portable Distribution	440
	Essential Libraries	441
	Summary	443
	Chapter 19: Numerical Programming	445
	Numbers in Python	445
	Mathematics	452
	Complex Numbers	456
	Arrays	458
	Summary	464
	Exercises	465
	Chapter 20: Python in the Enterprise	467
	Enterprise Applications	468
	Auditing, Sarbanes-Oxley, and What You Need to Know	473
	Working with Actual Enterprise Systems	475
	Summary	498
	Chapter 21: Web Applications and Web Services	499
	REST: The Architecture of the Web	500
	HTTP: Real-World REST	503
	CGI: Turning Scripts into Web Applications	508
	Building a Wiki	519
	Web Services	533
	REST Web Services	534
	XML-RPC	548
	SOAP	560
	Documenting Your Web Service API	569
	Choosing a Web Service Standard	574
	Web Service Etiquette	575
	A Sampling of Publicly Available Web Services	576
	Summary	578
	Exercises	578
	Chapter 22: Integrating Java with Python	579
	Scripting within Java Applications	580
	Comparing Python Implementations	581
	Installing Jython	581
	Running Jython	582
	Running Jython on Your Own	586
	Packaging Jython-Based Applications	587
	Integrating Java and Jython	587
	Testing from Jython	605
	Embedding the Jython Interpreter	606
	Compiling Python Code to Java	608
	Handling Differences between C Python and Jython	609
	Summary	610
	Exercises	611
	Appendix A: Answers to Exercises	613
	Appendix B: Online Resources	645
	For More Information	647
	Appendix C: What’s New in Python 2.4	649
	Negative Numbers	649
	Automatic Promotion of Large Numbers	649
	A Different String Substitution	650
	Looking at Sequences in Reverse	650
	A More Pythonish Subprocess Creation	650
	Making Import a Bit Easier	651
	None Really Is None	651
	Glossary	653
	Index	663