“Effective Python” by Brett Slatkin Book Review

I was mailed with a proposition to review a book. I wanted to try so here we go.

The book is from Brett Slatkin (it is the second edition), he is Googler who developed AppEngine and lots of other things in Google.

Let’s start with the target audience for this book. I’d recommend it to the people who are using Python at least several months and are feeling good with the basics. If you need more practical advice you are definitely welcome.

I do personally like the structure and the idea of the book — there are 90 tips to make your Python programming better. Also, it contains several tips for the features of Python 3.8 which is the latest stable version of the language as it is for the January 2020.

Below is the list of the items I like more that others:

• Item 2: Follow the PEP 8 Style Guide
• Item 17: Prefer defaultdict Over setdefault to Handle Missing Items in Internal State
• Items 19–26: All Functions chapter
• Item 27: Use Comprehensions Instead of map and filter
• Item 30: Consider Generators Instead of Returning Lists
• Item 36: Consider itertools for Working with Iterators and Generators
• Item 38: Accept Functions…