Acknowledgments

As I write this fourth edition of this book in 2009, I can’t help but be in a sort of “mission accomplished” state of mind. I have now been using and promoting Python for 17 years, and have been teaching it for 12 years. Despite the passage of time and events, I am still constantly amazed at how successful Python has been over the years. It has grown in ways that most of us could not possibly have imagined in 1992. So, at the risk of sounding like a hopelessly self-absorbed author, you’ll have to pardon a few words of reminiscing, congratulations, and thanks here.

It’s been the proverbial long and winding road. Looking back today, when I first discovered Python in 1992, I had no idea what an impact it would have on the next 17 years of my life. Two years after writing the first edition of Programming Python in 1995, I began traveling around the country and the world teaching Python to beginners and experts. Since finishing the first edition of Learning Python in 1999, I’ve been an independent Python trainer and writer, thanks largely to Python’s exponential growth in popularity.

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As I write these words in mid-2009, I have written 12 Python books (4 editions of 3). I have also been teaching Python for more than a decade; have taught some 225 Python training sessions in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Mexico; and have met over 3,000 students along the way. Besides racking up frequent flyer miles, these classes helped me refine this text as well as my other Python books. Over the years, teaching honed the books, and vice versa. In fact, the book you’re reading is derived almost entirely from my classes.

Because of this, I’d like to thank all the students who have participated in my courses during the last 12 years. Along with changes in Python itself, your feedback played a huge role in shaping this text. (There’s nothing quite as instructive as watching 3,000 students repeat the same beginner’s mistakes!) This edition owes its changes primarily to classes held after 2003, though every class held since 1997 has in some way helped refine this book. I’d especially like to single out clients who hosted classes in Dublin, Mexico City, Barcelona, London, Edmonton, and Puerto Rico; better perks would be hard to imagine.

I’d also like to express my gratitude to everyone who played a part in producing this book. To the editors who worked on this project: Julie Steele on this edition, Tatiana Apandi on the prior edition, and many others on earlier editions. To Doug Hellmann and Jesse Noller for taking part in the technical review of this book. And to O’Reilly for giving me a chance to work on those 12 book projects—it’s been net fun (and only feels a little like the movie Groundhog Day).

I want to thank my original coauthor David Ascher as well for his work on the first two editions of this book. David contributed the “Outer Layers” part in prior editions, which we unfortunately had to trim to make room for new core language materials in the third edition. To compensate, I added a handful of more advanced programs as a self-study final exercise in the third edition, and added both new advanced examples and a new complete part for advanced topics in the fourth edition. Also see the prior notes in this Preface about follow-up application-level texts you may want to consult once you’ve learned the fundamentals here.

For creating such an enjoyable and useful language, I owe additional thanks to Guido van Rossum and the rest of the Python community. Like most open source systems, Python is the product of many heroic efforts. After 17 years of programming Python, I still find it to be seriously fun. It’s been my privilege to watch Python grow from a new kid on the scripting languages block to a widely used tool, deployed in some fashion by almost every organization writing software. That has been an exciting endeavor to be a part of, and I’d like to thank and congratulate the entire Python community for a job well done.

I also want to thank my original editor at O’Reilly, the late Frank Willison. This book was largely Frank’s idea, and it reflects the contagious vision he had. In looking back, Frank had a profound impact on both my own career and that of Python itself. It is not an exaggeration to say that Frank was responsible for much of the fun and success of Python when it was new. We still miss him.

Finally, a few personal notes of thanks. To OQO for the best toys so far (while they lasted). To the late Carl Sagan for inspiring an 18-year-old kid from Wisconsin. To my Mom, for courage. And to all the large corporations I’ve come across over the years, for reminding me how lucky I have been to be self-employed for the last decade!

To my children, Mike, Sammy, and Roxy, for whatever futures you will choose to make. You were children when I began with Python, and you seem to have somehow grown up along the way; I’m proud of you. Life may compel us down paths all our own, but there will always be a path home.

And most of all, to Vera, my best friend, my girlfriend, and my wife. The best day of my life was the day I finally found you. I don’t know what the next 50 years hold, but I do know that I want to spend all of them holding you.

—Mark Lutz Sarasota, FloridaJuly 2009