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Python Playground: Geeky projects for the curious programmer By Mahesh Venkitachalam November 2015, 352 pp. Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 978-1-59327-604-1
When I first got this book, I was very excited. When I opened the mailer, I was somewhat concerned by the cover… two robots with laptops on a teeter totter. The sub-title “Geeky projects for the curious programmer” helped a little bit, but my eyes kept going back to those robots, no matter how hard I tried to ignore them.
Once I got into the book, however, my concerns were assuaged. Glancing at the table of contents, I was pleased by the project-based format. Part 1 deals with iTunes Playlists and Spirographs, neither of which really excited me. Part 2, however, caused my heart to start to beat faster. The three projects cover Conway's Game of Life, Generating Musical Overtones, and Flock simulations – all of which are of interest to me for various reasons. Continuing down, my eyes were drawn to “Part 5: Hardware Hacking”. My heart skipped a beat (which at my age isn't really a good thing) and I immediately jumped directly to the first page of the section. Sure enough, it was talking about using the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino. I was in heaven. I was smiling so hard that my face started to hurt.
Reading through chapter 12 (Introduction to the Arduino) immediately showed that this author has a very good command of Python and his code is very tight. He explains his code in what I call “the breakout format”, which is where the code is presented as a block or snippet, then is explained step-by-step. No Starch uses a very nice template that allows the author to put graphical call-out numbers (numbers inside a small black circle) next to a line of code, and then the author simply references the number in the explanation section. This makes it very easy for the reader to quickly refer to a line of code that they need more explanation for.
There are a total of 14 projects that include ASCII art, particle system simulation, as well as using OpenGL. The author also teaches how to use popular and important Python libraries like numpy, matplotlib, pygame and more.
The author states right from the beginning, that this book is not intended to be the reader's first book on Python and I completely agree. While each project has in-depth explanations of not only the code but also the background needed to understand the project, it is far above the level of a beginning programmer. If, however, the reader has some background in other high level languages and has a good grasp of Python syntax, then this is a great book to move beyond the normal command-line type programs. The projects presented are all real-world usable and very relevant to today.
The bottom line is that this is a book that belongs in every Python programmer’s library. I have to give this book 5 out of 5 stars. No Starch has a great book on its hands.