Free chapter about Python and databases (MySQL and SQLite)

[John Bokma]

Robinow <drobinow at gmail.com> writes:

> <Mobile
>
> On May 28, 2010, at 10:05 PM, John Bokma <john at castleamber.com> wrote:
>
>> Sebastian Bassi <sbassi at clubdelarazon.org> writes:
>>
>>> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 12:37 AM, John Bokma <john at castleamber.com>
>>> wrote:
>>
>> Even if it's just a few bucks, it's still money saved [0]. On top of
>> that I think it's way better to point your audience to good books on
>> the
>> topic and skip the intro instead of doing a (half hearted IMO) attempt
>> at it yourself.
>>>
>>
> OK, John. What book do you recommend?

Since it's not clear on what topic in the book you want recommendations,
I do them all. Note that I only can recommend books I have either in my
possession or browsed through that are still on my wish list. I am not
new to programming, so the books listed under Python are not books for
beginners per se, except the Programming in Python 3, which is on top of
that one of the best learning a programming language books I've read (so
far).

Python:
   Programming in Python 3 /2nd edition/
 
 If you have some experience with programming:
   Dive into Python 2 (*)
   Dive into Python 3 (*)

 If you already have a book on learning Python and want a good extra
 reference:
   Python Essential Reference (4th edition)

Subversion: 
   Version Control with Subversion (O'Reilly) (*)

Database:
   The Definitive Guide to SQLite
   MySQL (4th Edition) by Paul Dubois

 I also strongly suggest to read 1 or 2 books by Joe Celko before
 you even start to make your own databases (wish I would had), for
 example:

   Data and Databases: Concepts in Practice (**)
   SQL Programming Style
   SQL for smarties

IMO Joe writes a bit "in your face" and calls a lot of people dumb, but
don't let that get in the way ;-).

I own also a copy of "MySQL cookbook" but haven't used it much. Still, I
recommend to browse this book if you already have book(s) on MySQL and
decide for yourself if it's something you want. In my experience most
cookbook books by O'Reilly are good or very good.

Can't recommend a good book on XML, I don't have one (***). I do have a
book on XSLT (XSLT 2.0, O'Reilly) which is IMO very good, and does have,
from the top of my head, a good XML introduction. Personally, I think
it's good that if you work with XML that at least you have some idea of
what XSLT is. Another XSLT book I have is XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0, but I
haven't used that very often yet.

(*) Also available as free download
(**) Based on my experience with the other excellent books by Celko
(***) A good book on XML would probably be 50 pages or less :-D.

-- 
John Bokma                                                               j3b

Hacking & Hiking in Mexico -  http://johnbokma.com/
http://castleamber.com/ - Perl & Python Development