Title Author Publisher Pages ISBN

Python Programming on Win32 Mark Hammond & Andy Robinson OReilly 652 1-56592-621-8

I first found this book while looking through the shelves of the local bookstore. I was interested, but scared by the title. Win32 evokes a nightmare of fears for me! I immediately purchased Learning Python by: Mark Lutz & David Ascher of OReilly instead. After reading the Learning Python Book, I was excited to try Python Programming on Win32. I was relieved to find that it wasnt just a win32 API book! The book is divided into three logical divisions. First is an Introduction to Python. Second, we are Building an Advanced Python Application. Then last we find the Python on Windows Cookbook. Section#1: Introduction to Python The initial overview helped me understand Pythons place in the arsenal of programming tools. I was impressed with the amount of integration into the windows environment. An IDE was even provided to lessen the shock of a new language. I like the portability of using the standard modules, but the extensive list of win32 extensions means that it is truly customized for windows! Python is described as a utility language as well as a scripting language. I found the program behavior to have direct correlations to using AutoLISP to customize AutoCAD. Along with the fluid execution of an interpreted macro language, it is a full-functioning independent programming language that mixes the benefits of VB and VBA in an OpenSource wrapper. It looks to me that the product does a lot of what Microsoft Dot NET was created to do. Section#2: Building an Advanced Python Application OK, now I see where the heavy lifting is. Object programming pops in, as well as setting up a COM server. Each of these chapters should have complete books dedicated to their subjects! The authors do a good job giving simple examples, but dont claim to be THE programming reference on the topics. I was impressed when I saw how simply Python could tie itself in as a macro language inside your own application. It was a harder sell for me to picture using Python as a COM-client for Excel or Word, when VBA was already built in, but the functionality was necessary to complete the COM section. Output is also a very strong point for Python. The authors describe HTML, PDF, and Graphical output options. By the end of the second section, I was worried that I couldnt do GUI development like my previous work on VB. The authors actually used VB to construct a user interface for their COM serving application! Section#3: Python on Windows Cookbook Section three quickly finished their discussion on COM and jumped into Databases. Here is my favorite quote from the book, coming from a section heading: DAO, ADO, ODBC, OLEDB, and Other GBFLAs (Great Big Five Letter Acronyms). Python utilizes all the standard database access options, culminating with a database API for Python. You are

not limited to these choices though. If you need true independence from the operating system, Python offers Gadfly a relational database written entirely in Python. More effort should probably be made, from a State level, to provide public data in a vendor neutral format like Gadfly. The book does an exceptional job listing authors who produce valuable add-ons and where they can be found. Im not sure that this belongs in a win32 book, but this section includes chapters on Pythons functionality with SMTP, POP3, NNTP, FTP and HTTP. Looking at the simplicity of the functionality, I can only imagine how easily one could become a spammer! I do see how I need to incorporate some of this functionality to remotely monitor critical resources. I may be sorry if I start sending myself too many important emails though. Windows NT Administration and Processes and Files were my two favorite chapters. The windows administration examples helped me understand the waste of time I have been spending doing repetitive tasks. I have seen that if I code simple solutions for repetitive tasks, the processes can be automated to reduce both workload and errors. I have found myself doing exactly the work that was detailed as examples! File processing was also one of my favorites because that has been the bulk of work I have done in the past. I find the portability of code exciting for file processing. I plan a pilot project in the near future, utilizing python to replace the old Fortran programs that we have floating around the department. Mixed in this third and voluminous section were 16 pages of information on serial communications. I didnt expect to see this, but found the reading very interesting. I had not though about utilizing Python to control or read laboratory equipment, but here is goes making another niche of functionality that I could use. It appears that serial and infrared communications are treated identically, but there was no mention of USB. I found myself wanting to write digitizer drivers by the end of the chapter. Finally I found the GUI, and there are multiples of them! I am beginning to realize that OpenSource means multiple standards. Three different examples were detailed, explaining the pros and cons of each. Tkinter was more portable, PythonWin MFC was more C++ and windows ish, and wxPython was an entirely different animal. Finally, Ill mention Active Scripting. I thought that if you bought into the M$ server, that you had to use their tools. I was unaware that you can setup your server to utilize Python in its ASP pages too. Presto! We can utilize the Gadfly database and output HTML. Life is good and low budget.

Reviewed by:

Denton Yoder Computer Systems Engineer Biological Systems Engineering Virginia Tech