Rating: 
Summary: not particularly useful -- unfocused
Review: I was very disappointed with this book, expecting something along the lines of "programming perl". For reference for experienced or advanced programmers, you're better off with "Python Cookbook" by by Alex Martelli/David Ascher or the excellent "python essential reference" by David M. Beazley. If you're starting off with python, the manual pages and documentation bundled with python are way better. This book tries hard to be a lot of things at once and comes short in each case. It's not a complete reference book, or a programming style book or a learning/tutorial style book.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely worth a read
Review: I had been relying on Beazley's "Python Essential Reference" as my primary guide to figuring out which Python functions to use for a particular task. It's a good, concise guide to have at hand, but didn't help much in teaching me how to solve problems with Python. Once I got my hands on "Programming Python", I instantly found the solutions I needed (like how to send an email when a program completes or how to transfer files between computers during program execution). This book is great! The examples (provided on CD) show exactly how to accomplish many typical programming tasks. Lutz's "Learning Python" is probably a better place for a novice Python programmer to start, however.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Rocks....
Review: I'm professional Java/Perl programmer. I'm beginning to understand why people don't write many books for advanced programmers. I'm starting to learn Python, but I don't need to start with a book on Syntax. This book tells me exactly what I need to know to automate FTP, read HTTP files over the web, etc.... This is a great book for professional programmers...
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time with this book
Review: What I find intersting about this book is that at 1200+ pages (refers to 2nd ed), it offers very little. It is not a good book for learning Python, it is not a good book for advanced Python, it is not a good reference. The only thing this book does well is touch on almost everything related to Python, if ever so briefly.
Rating:
Summary: A cure for which there is no disease
Review: This is basicly a compendium of introductions to the various standard libraries which come bundled with Python. Despite the misleading title, this book assumes you already have a workin knowledge of Python and jumps straight into examples of library usage. Inexplicably, despite assuming Python knowledge, it doesn't assume you know certain basic computer concepts: near the beginning the book spends a couple of /pages/ on the topic of redirecting output to and from Python programs using your shell's standard redirection facility - and never makes it clear that this is a standard operating system feature, rather than a feature unique to Python. The pace of the various library tutorials is also excruciatingly slow for the experienced programmer, bloating this book to unwieldy size.
Rating:
Summary: You want a book on learning Python? Buy...Learning Python!
Review: I'm sorry I don't have the time to do justice to this excellent book. Maybe I'll write a longer review later. But if you're put off by the low ratings from the people who say, "This book is horrible for learning Python!", you should be made aware of the fact that O'Reilly has a separate book for learning Python. It's called _Learning Python._ Get a clue, folks, and quit bashing a *programming* book because it didn't cover the basics. I also want to note that in every single O'Reilly book I have ever picked up, the author(s) took the time to let you know what sort of background you would need in order to benefit from it.
Rating:
Summary: It's everything it says it is.
Review: I'm not really one for writing reviews, but after seeing quite a few people complain about "problems" with the book that have been guided by their own misconceptions, I felt I had to. Programming Python is great book, the only python book I have in fact purchased. It is the only python book I have seen so far that can not be replaced by python's excellent online documentation.
In short, some of the reviews complain that it is mistitled, a poor reference book, or a poor book to use to learn python. Lets look at the front page. The first thing that I see is "solutions for python programmers" and "programming python". I would think a reference manual would involve the words "reference" in its title. Flip a few pages and you'll see the author explain that this book is on ways to "use" python and assumes you already know the language fundamentals. Flip a few more pages and you'll see in big bold letters, "But It's Still Not a Reference Manual." The back of the book gives you a few more clues.
As far as I can see, everyone who has given this book a bad review didn't even give it one glance before purchasing it. The book covers everything it says it will, and does it well. I would recommend this book to anyone who already has a good base in python, or it willing to learn the fundamentals online to supplement the book. This book is, like the front cover says, on ways to use python after all.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but useless
Review: There's some fun reading and a few odds and ends to pick up, but overall, this book is horrible if you just want to learn Python. Keep looking, you're certain to find something better.
Rating:
Summary: I really expected more.
Review: Pythons greatest liability is poor reference books, and
this is the head of the pack (of the poor books). This
book might be useful to expand an experienced Python
programmers ways of using the language, but it is utterly
useless and frustrating to a person trying to learn the
language, and even worse as a reference. Learning Python
is scarcely better. The Python Essential reference is
the only Python book worth having. The online manuals
are actually pretty good. My advice is to drop python and learn ruby!
the Ruby "pickaxe book" is a joy, too bad there
is no Python book like it! Two stars are generous for this book.
Rating: 
Summary: not a great reference, nor sufficiently focused
Review: I became suspicious the first time I saw a backslash. I bought this book as an obvious analog of the excellent
O'Reilly Associates book "Programming Perl". That book
serves both as an excellent guide to its language and also
instruction on its application. Python promised to clean
up a lot of Perl's clutter, and so I had high expectations
for this book. ...Lutz's book has been a disappointment. First, it's obsolete. Most of the examples are 1.52, and
many of the ways of doing things in that version are no
longer rational under 2.3. Python 2 issues are
generally addressed in footnotes or sidebars. Python's
a moving target
(the meaning of something as simple as "1/2" was just
changed, for example), so instant obsolence of printed
matter is inevitable. But the book would be worthwhile if the programming examples
were really compelling. But while the coding uses solid
style, I don't think the examples are carefully enough chosen
to succinctly communicate the message. Really -- it's too long.
And the index is insufficient to allow one to find focused
examples on particular issues. And back to that backslash thing. The book has a clear
DOS/Windoze focus. Linux/Unix is also discussed, but the
book spends too much time on DOS limitations for the taste
of someone who works in a more POSIX-friendly environment. For learning the language, I recommend the Python
web site. For something to read when you can't be near
a terminal, there has to be a better option. Dan
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