Effective Python

Update: Visit the official book website to get the book!

I'm overwhelmingly excited to be writing the Effective Python book, a follow-on to Scott Meyers' classic, Effective C++. I'm honored to have the opportunity to author this book. I first read Effective C++ when I was 15 years old. Scott's Effective books led to my 7 year obsession with C++ and my first job. At Google I learned Python. I've been building infrastructure and applications with it for the past 9 years. Hopefully I have valuable advice to share from my own experience and what I've learned from the Python community.

Like the original, my book will be ~50 specific pieces of advice, 2-4 pages each, on how to write better Python programs. It should be the second thing you read after wonderful introductory books like Alex Martelli's Python in a Nutshell (which is how I learned Python) and Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way. It will be a stepping stone towards Python mastery via more thorough references like Wesley Chun's Core Python books and the Python Cookbook.

The goal of Effective Python is to give readers a sense of the "right way" of writing Python code in general. It's not a language introduction, a cookbook, an encyclopedic reference, or a guide for a specific area like Django, NumPy, of Kivy. This book is for programmers who want to know the dirt, the real stuff, the guidance of hard-won experience. It should transcend specific problem domains. This is what made Effective C++ so awesome.

I'll do my best to follow Scott's advice in writing it. Of course I'm terrified of leaving anything out. If you have tips or ideas for things I shouldn't miss, please send me a note using this link. Thanks in advance!