Impractical Python Projects: Playful Programming Activities to Make You Smarter - Softcover

Vaughan, Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 159327890X ISBN 13: 9781593278908

Publisher: No Starch Press, 2018

Synopsis

Impractical Python Projects is a collection of fun and educational projects designed to entertain programmers while enhancing their Python skills. It picks up where the complete beginner books leave off, expanding on existing concepts and introducing new tools that you'll use every day. And to keep things interesting, each project includes a zany twist featuring historical incidents, pop culture references, and literary allusions.

You'll flex your problem-solving skills and employ Python's many useful libraries to do things like:
- Help James Bond crack a high-tech safe with a hill-climbing algorithm
- Write haiku poems using Markov Chain Analysis
- Use genetic algorithms to breed a race of gigantic rats
- Crack the world's most successful military cipher using cryptanalysis
- Derive the anagram, "I am Lord Voldemort" using linguistical sieves
- Plan your parents' secure retirement with Monte Carlo simulation
- Save the sorceress Zatanna from a stabby death using palingrams
- Model the Milky Way and calculate our odds of detecting alien civilizations
- Help the world's smartest woman win the Monty Hall problem argument
- Reveal Jupiter's Great Red Spot using optical stacking
- Save the head of Mary, Queen of Scots with steganography
- Foil corporate security with invisible electronic ink

Simulate volcanoes, map Mars, and more, all while gaining valuable experience using free modules like Tkinter, matplotlib, Cprofile, Pylint, Pygame, Pillow, and Python-Docx.

Whether you're looking to pick up some new Python skills or just need a pick-me-up, you'll find endless educational, geeky fun with Impractical Python Projects.

About this title

About the Author

Lee Vaughan is a geologist with over 30 years' experience in the petroleum industry. As the Senior Technical Professional for Geological Modeling at a major international oil company, he was involved in the construction and review of computer models, the development, testing, and commercialization of software, and the training of geoscientists and engineers. An advocate for nonprogrammers who must use programming in their careers, he wrote Impractical Python Projects to help self-learners hone their skills with the Python language.

Review

"Python is a programming language, but it is also fun to play with. This book recognizes that."
—Geek Tech Stuff

"Rather than being an introductory text, Vaughan’s book pushes you in interesting directions for solving a diverse set of problems. Most of these “impractical” projects, while themselves being not so useless after all, will have parallels to real life projects." —Greg Laden, Greg Laden's Blog

Edition details

• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 159327890X
• ISBN 13: 9781593278908
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 424