Learning Python Application Development

Key Features

• Get to grips with Python techniques that address commonly encountered problems in general application development
• Develop, package, and deploy efficient applications in a fun way
• A practical guide to many significant areas of application development including best practices, exception handling, testing, refactoring, design patterns, performance, GUI and web application development.

Book Description

Python is one of the most widely used dynamic programming languages. It supports a rich set of packages, GUI and web frameworks that enable rapid development of cross-platform applications. Such fast paced development often comes with its own baggage that could bring down the overall quality, performance and extensibility of the application. This book will show you ways to handle such situations and help you develop better Python applications.

Starting with a simple application, the book takes you all the way through designing and developing robust and efficient applications. It touches upon several important areas of software development in an accessible, fun way.

The book uses a fictional game theme as a vehicle to explain various concepts. This fun journey begins by developing a simple command-line application. The complexities added in subsequent chapters pose interesting practical problems. It further shows how to address those problems.

Each chapter targets a different aspect of application development. A few initial ones focus on software robustness, packaging and releasing the application code.

The next few chapters are about improving the application lifetime by making the code extensible, reusable and readable. You will learn about refactoring, design patterns, documentation and best practices.

Techniques to identify the bottlenecks and improve performance are covered in a series of three chapters devoted to performance.

What you will learn

• Build a robust application by handling exceptions
• Modularize, package, and release the source distribution
• Document the code and implement coding standards
• Create automated tests to catch bugs in the early development stage
• Identify and re-factor badly written code to improve application life
• Detect recurring problems in the code and apply design patterns
• Improve code efficiency by identifying performance bottlenecks and fixing them
• Develop intuitive GUI and web applications

Ninad Sathaye has spent several years of his professional career designing and developing performance critical engineering applications written in a variety of languages including Python and C++. In his early career, he was involved in the development of NanoEngineer-1, an open source, interactive 3D-CAD software for molecular nanotechnology. This is where he developed a passion for the Python language. He has been working as a software architect in the semiconductor industry and more recently in the domain of Internet of Things.

Besides programming, his favorite hobbies are reading and traveling. Ninad holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering.