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Review of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python

The following is a detailed review of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python: Best Practices for Development by Kenneth Reitz and Tanya Schlusser (and many more).

Before you carry on reading, this book will not teach you how to program in Python. It is not intended for that, and you should not read it if what you want is to learn the basics of Python Programming. For that, there are other great books for which we have written about like Python Crash Course or Learning Python.

However, Mid-level Python programmers that want to notch up their skills, discover great tools, and reach Python expertise, will find this book most enjoyable. This is because this book is not about learning how to program, but rather about learning what Python is as a language, with is its philosophy, powers, and uses, and discovering a wide range of libraries and practices for optimal development.

If you’ve read until here you must be congratulated, you have taken the first step towards becoming an artist of Python programming. By the time you finish this book, you will have personalised your own IDE to obtain a custom and optimised development environment, learnt how to handle Python projects with virtual environments, and the proper way to structure your code and folders.

You will be a master of PEP 8, the bible of style for Python Development, learnt about code testing, error logging and how to document code. You will know how to make shiny code packages, web applications, and software interfaces with APIs leveraging the power of networking. Lastly, you will learn about Python’s scientific applications, text mining and manipulation, how to cope with images, cryptography and data persistence.

This guide describes some of the best practices currently used by professional developers. Unlike other programming books, The Hitchhiker's Guide is light on reusable code and heavier on design philosophy, directing the reader to excellent sources that already exist. While for some this makes the book no more than a collection of solutions and services, for us it is a fantastic resource to have read and to keep nearby, to use as a pragmatic guide on how to get things done in Python. Also, it is full of humour, as can be seen from it’s name, and will make the reading and learning an enjoyable and galactic road.

The content of this book is freely available of PDF here, or on it’s official website. Also, the book contains excellent links to all the mentioned resources. Because it is a living text that is constantly being updated, what is on the actual book differs from what can be found on the web-page.

About the book

Author: while its two main authors are Kenneth Reitz and Tanya Schlusser, this book is really an opinionated guide that exists to provide both novice and expert Python developers a best practice handbook to the installation, configuration, and usage of Python on a daily basis.

Length: 338 pages.

First release year: 2016

Posterior releases: periodically every once in a while.

Summary of the Hitchhikers guide to Python

This book is an outstanding guide to reach Python expertise for those who already know how to program in Python. It won’t teach you how to program from a beginner level, or teach you advanced python techniques for programming.

However, it compiles a vast amount of information on how and where to use Python, along with the best available tools to use in different contexts, how to improve your coding style, and how to set up and understand all that surrounds the language (IDE, packages, debugging and documenting).

Overall, a fresh and delightful resource to have at hand.

You can buy The Hitchhiker’s guide to Python on Amazon here:

You can find other Python books here, and Online Python Programming Courses. Also, in our Tutorials category you can find other awesome resources to learn this fantastic programming language like Kaggle Learn or RealPython.

Thank you so much for reading How to Learn Machine Learning, we hope you enjoyed the review! Take care!