This book falls into five distinct parts. To manage the clue absorption rate, the first three parts are organized in a way that builds up the language in layers from central concepts to more advanced features. Each layer introduces a few new concepts, and is presented in some depth. Programming exercises are provided to encourage further exploration of each layer. The last two parts cover the extension modules and provide specifications for some complex exercises that will help solidify programming skills.

Some of the chapters include digressions on more advanced topics. These can be skipped, as they cover topics related to programming in general, or notes about the implementation of the Python language. These are reference material to help advanced students build skills above and beyond the basic language.

Part I, “Language Basics” introduces the basic feartures of the Python language, covering most of the statements but sticking with basic numeric data types. Chapter 1, Background and History provides some history and background on Python. Chapter 3, Getting Started covers installation of Python, using the interpreter interactively and creating simple program files. Chapter 4, Simple Numeric Expressions and Output covers the basic expressions and core numeric types. Chapter 6, Variables, Assignment and Input introduces variables, assignment and some simple input constructs. Chapter 7, Truth, Comparison and Conditional Processing adds truth, conditions and loops to the language. Chapter 9, Functions introduces the basic function definition and function call constructs; Chapter 10, Additional Notes On Functions introduces the call by name and call by value features of Python, as well as advanced function call features.

Part II, “Data Structures” adds a number of data structures to enhance the expressive power of the language. In this part we will use a number of different kinds of objects, prior to designing our own objects. Chapter 11, Sequences: Strings, Tuples and Lists extends the data types to include various kinds of sequences. These include Chapter 12, Strings , Chapter 13, Tuples and Chapter 14, Lists . Chapter 15, Mappings and Dictionaries describes mappings and dictionaries. Chapter 17, Exceptions covers exception objects, and exception creation and handling. Chapter 19, Files covers files and several closely related operating system (OS) services. Chapter 20, Advanced Sequences describes more advanced sequence techniques, including multi-dimensional matrix processing. This part attempts to describe a reasonably complete set of built-in data types.

Part III, “Data + Processing = Objects” describes the object-oriented programming features of Python. Chapter 21, Classes introduces basics of class definitions and introduces simple inheritance. Chapter 22, Advanced Class Definition adds some features to basic class definitions. Chapter 23, Some Design Patterns extend this discussion further to include several common design patterns that use polymorphism. Chapter 24, Creating or Extending Data Types describes the mechanism for adding types to Python that behave like the built-in types.

Part IV, “Components, Modules and Packages” describes modules, which provide a higher-level grouping of class and function definitions. It also summarizes selected extension modules provided with the Python environment. Chapter 28, Modules provides basic semantics and syntax for creating modules. We cover the organization of packages of modules in Chapter 29, Packages . An overview of the Python library is the subject of Chapter 30, The Python Library . Chapter 31, Complex Strings: the re Module covers string pattern matching and processing with the re module. Chapter 32, Dates and Times: the time and datetime Modules covers the time and datetime module. Chapter 35, Programs: Standing Alone covers the creation of main programs. We touch just the tip of the client-server iceberg in Chapter 36, Programs: Clients, Servers, the Internet and the World Wide Web .

Some of the commonly-used modules are covered during earlier chapters. In particular the math and random modules are covered in the section called “The math Module” and the string module is covered in Chapter 12, Strings . Chapter 19, Files touches on fileinput, os, os.path, glob, and fnmatch.

Part V, “Projects” presents several larger and more complex programming problems. These are ranked from relatively simple to quite complex. Chapter 37, Areas of the Flag covers computing the area of the symbols on the American flag. Chapter 38, The Date of Easter has several algorithms for finding the date for Easter in a given year. Chapter 39, Musical Pitches has several algorithms for the exact frequencies of musical pitches. Chapter 40, Bowling Scores covers scoring in a game of bowling. Chapter 41, Mah Jongg Hands describes algorithms for evaluating hands in the game of Maj Jongg. Chapter 42, Chess Game Notation deals with interpreting the log from a game of chess.