O'Reilly has published a second edition of the Python Cookbook, a collection of material culled from an online site. Python is a fairly new interpreted scripting language whose most distinctive feature is standardized formatting aimed at improving readability (a sore spot for perl).

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The Python Cookbook was edited by Alex Martelli, Anna Martelli Ravenscroft, and David Ascher, based on material contributed to the ActiveState's Python Cookbook site by the enthusiastic and quickly growing Python community. The material, or “recipes,” include code snippets, technical discussions, and more.

The second edition of the Python Cookbook covers Python 2.3 and 2.4, and offers about 300 recipes addressing topics such as searching and sorting, text manipulation, working with files, object-oriented programming, multithreaded programming, system administration, web programming, processing XML, debugging and testing, and metaprogramming. Contributors include Python luminaries like Facundo Batista, David Beazley, Donn Cave, Fred L. Drake, Jr., Paul F. Dubois, Mark Hammond, Raymond Hettinger, Jeremy Hylton, Fredrik Lundh, Mark Lutz, Andy McKay, Gustavo Niemeyer, Tim Peters, Paul Prescod, Aaron Watters, and Greg Wilson, O'Reilly says.

The Python Cookbook includes a Foreword by Python creator Giudo van Rossum, who says, “All in all, the breadth and depth of this collection are impressive. This [attests] to Python's wide range of application areas, but also to its user community.”

The 844-page book is available now, priced at $49.95 direct from O'Reilly. A sample chapter (PDF download) is also available.

 
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