Software development is becoming more and more accessible every day. Free and affordable online resources are helping more people than ever before learn how to write code.
Python is one of the most popular programming languages today. If you work in data science, machine learning, or computational sciences you've probably used Python. Unless you've been writing code every day in a collaborative environment for several years, though, you may be missing out on a number of industry practices that can help you.
A big part of professional Python development is writing easy-to-read code that other developers can understand and verify. Practices of the Python Pro teaches you how to design software with intent, solidifying your understanding with chapters of examples and exercies in Python. Learn how to separate concerns, encapsulate and abstract behavior, and use design patterns to achieve loose coupling. You'll come away with tools to build flexible code you can share easily with others.
About the author
Dane Hillard is a software engineer, web developer, and international Python conference speaker interested in education, biotechnology, and open source. Dane has been writing Python software professionally for almost a decade.
Dane has a B.S.E. in computer engineering with a minor in mathematics from the University of Michigan. As a software engineer, Dane has worked on intelligence research and development at SAIC (now Leidos) and personalized cancer genomics at Compendia Bioscience (now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific). As a lead web application developer at ITHAKA, his focus is mainly on web development in Python, Django, and front-end technologies to enable academic research.
Citations
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Media
Podcasts and articles where you can learn about the book, advancing your programming career, and other fun but less interesting things.
Podcasts
- Django Chat: Practices of the Python Pro
- Talk Python to Me: Practices of the Python Pro
- No Dogma: Good Software Practices
- The Development Hell: Hot for Teacher
- Test & Code: Non-traditional paths to software and the skills required
Articles
Book resources
These resources can help you through the book, or help you decide if you'd like to buy it in the first place. The errata are also available on the book's homepage.
Recommended content
These are other books, articles, authors, and more that you can read to continue improving your Python and software development skills.
Books
- Python Workout by Reuven Lerner
- Architecture Patterns with Python by Harry Percival and Bob Gregory
- Test-Driven Development with Python by Harry Percival