[Python-Dev] My (possibly delusional) book project

[David Beazley]

Although this is a little off-topic for the developer list, I want to
fill people in on a new Python book project.  A few months ago, 
I was approached about doing a new Python reference book and I've
since decided to proceed with the project (after all, an increased
presence at the bookstore is probably a good thing :-).

In any event, my "vision" for this book is to take the material in the
Python tutorial, language reference, library reference, and extension
guide and squeeze it into a compact book no longer than 300 pages (and
hopefully without having to use a 4-point font).  Actually, what I'm
really trying to do is write something in a style similar to the K&R C
Programming book (very terse, straight to the point, and technically
accurate). The book's target audience is experienced/expert
programmers.

With this said, I would really like to get feedback from the developer
community about this project in a few areas.  First, I want to make
sure the language reference is in sync with the latest version of
Python, that it is as accurate as possible, and that it doesn't leave
out any important topics or recent developments.  Second, I would be
interested in knowing how to emphasize certain topics (for instance,
should I emphasize class-based exceptions over string-based exceptions
even though most books only cover the former case?).  The other big
area is the library reference.  Given the size of the library, I'm
going to cut a number of modules out.  However, the choice of what to
cut is not entirely clear (for now, it's a judgment call on my part).

All of the work in progress for this project is online at:

   http://rustler.cs.uchicago.edu/~beazley/essential/reference.html

I would love to get constructive feedback about this from other
developers.  Of course, I'll keep people posted in any case.

Cheers,

Dave