Core Python Programming (2nd Edition)

This book is a classic advanced title in the Python field. The original is Core Python Programming, 2nd Edition, fully updated for Python 2.5. The book is organized in two major parts: the first, about two-thirds of the length, covers the 'core' of the language, from syntax and style, Python objects and the memory model, to numeric types, sequence types (strings, lists, tuples), mapping and set types, conditionals and loops, files and input/output, error and exception handling, functions and functional programming, modules, object-oriented programming, and the interpreter's execution environment; the second part turns to advanced application topics, covering regular expressions, network programming and network client programming, multithreading, graphical user interfaces (Tkinter and others), Web programming, database programming (MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, etc.), and extending Python with languages such as C. Each chapter ends with exercises ranging from beginner to intermediate difficulty, with partial solutions in the back, so readers can test what they have learned hands-on. The author emphasizes professional Python style and best practices throughout, hoping readers will not only learn what 'runs' but also understand the object model and runtime mechanisms behind the language. The book is aimed at readers with some programming background who want to master Python systematically and delve into real development scenarios; it is not suitable as a first book for complete beginners.