Python Cookbook

If you've mastered Python's fundamentals, you're ready to start using it to get real work done. Programming Python will show you how, with in-depth tutorials on the language's primary application domains: system administration, GUIs, and the Web. You'll also explore how Python is used in databases, networking, front-end scripting layers, text processing, and more. This book focuses on commonly used tools and libraries to give you a comprehensive understanding of Python’s many roles in practical, real-world programming.

You'll learn language syntax and programming techniques in a clear and concise manner, with lots of examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. Completely updated for version 3.x, Programming Python also delves into the language as a software development tool, with many code examples scaled specifically for that purpose.

Topics include:

• Quick Python tour: Build a simple demo that includes data representation, object-oriented programming, object persistence, GUIs, and website basics
• System programming: Explore system interface tools and techniques for command-line scripting, processing files and folders, running programs in parallel, and more
• GUI programming: Learn to use Python’s tkinter widget library
• Internet programming: Access client-side network protocols and email tools, use CGI scripts, and learn website implementation techniques
• More ways to apply Python: Implement data structures, parse text-based information, interface with databases, and extend and embed Python

This is the book to reach for when you're coding on the fly and need an answer now. It's an easy-to-use reference to the core language, with descriptions of commonly used modules and toolkits, and a guide to recent changes, new features, and upgraded built-ins -- all updated to cover Python 3.X as well as version 2.6. You'll also quickly find exactly what you need with the handy index.

Written by Mark Lutz -- widely recognized as the world's leading Python trainer -- Python Pocket Reference, Fourth Edition, is the perfect companion to O'Reilly's classic Python tutorials, also written by Mark: Learning Python and Programming Python.

• Built-in object types, including numbers, lists, dictionaries, and more
• Statements and syntax for creating and processing objects
• Functions and modules for structuring and reusing code
• Python's object-oriented programming tools
• The exception-handling model
• Built-in functions, exceptions, and attributes
• Special operator overloading methods
• Widely used standard library modules and extensions
• Command-line options and development tools
• Python idioms and hints

This book offers a highly accessible introduction to natural language processing, the field that supports a variety of language technologies, from predictive text and email filtering to automatic summarization and translation. With it, you'll learn how to write Python programs that work with large collections of unstructured text. You'll access richly annotated datasets using a comprehensive range of linguistic data structures, and you'll understand the main algorithms for analyzing the content and structure of written communication.

Packed with examples and exercises, Natural Language Processing with Python will help you:

• Extract information from unstructured text, either to guess the topic or identify "named entities"
• Analyze linguistic structure in text, including parsing and semantic analysis
• Access popular linguistic databases, including WordNet and treebanks
• Integrate techniques drawn from fields as diverse as linguistics and artificial intelligence

Powerful, flexible, and easy to use, Python is an ideal language for building software tools and applications for life science research and development. This unique book shows you how to program with Python, using code examples taken directly from bioinformatics. In a short time, you'll be using sophisticated techniques and Python modules that are particularly effective for bioinformatics programming.

Bioinformatics Programming Using Python is perfect for anyone involved with bioinformatics -- researchers, support staff, students, and software developers interested in writing bioinformatics applications. You'll find it useful whether you already use Python, write code in another language, or have no programming experience at all. It's an excellent self-instruction tool, as well as a handy reference when facing the challenges of real-life programming tasks.

• Become familiar with Python's fundamentals, including ways to develop simple applications
• Learn how to use Python modules for pattern matching, structured text processing, online data retrieval, and database access
• Discover generalized patterns that cover a large proportion of how Python code is used in bioinformatics
• Learn how to apply the principles and techniques of object-oriented programming
• Benefit from the "tips and traps" section in each chapter