Education

Here is a biased review on a selection of more than 30 textbooks and tutorials I have gone through. In the order of most recent first.

Regardless of my rating I am aware of the great effort the authors have put into their work for which I am endlessly thankful. Every previous book that a student has read makes the success of the next book more certain.

Django Crash Course

Author: Daniel Roy Greenfeld (Author), Audrey Roy Greenfeld

25%

Theory volume

30%

Theory presentation

30%

Practical exercises

Overall: not really

Learn about 3rd party packages for Django.

Warning: the book has a lot of children’s drawings (the purpose is obscure). The above ratings for the book say it all. But I do admit that the book does introduce you to a vast list of 3rd party packages to use with Django (it does not go much beyond listing them). Surprisingly this is the only book so far that even mentioned the web site where you can find all of these packages.

Django for APIs: Build web APIs with Python and Django

Author: William S. Vincent

25%

Theory volume

60%

Theory presentation

45%

Practical exercises

Overall: ok

Get an idea.

Basic examples of the subject. Does not get you in to the mood of: Yes, that is where I can use it, let’s do this!

Django for Beginners 4.0: Build websites with Python & Django

Author: William S. Vincent

30%

Theory volume

90%

Theory presentation

75%

Practical exercises

Overall: excellent

Solid on the basics of Django.

While excellent on getting you started, will not let you do anything impressive or wholesome. Misses on a lot if not all web development aspects and tools. Concentrates on Django alone. But what is most challenging in web development is to learn to combine different tools, libraries, packages.

Practical SQL, 2nd Edition: A Beginner's Guide to Storytelling with Data 2nd Edition

Author: Anthony DeBarros

75%

Theory volume

80%

Theory presentation

95%

Practical exercises

Overall: excellent

One of the few books that gives a chance to practice.

While there was plenty of writing SQL queries at the time of reading the book, I got no real chance to write them again in a project. Even Django advises against using pure SQl but rather its ORM.

Learning Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming

Author: Mark Lutz

75%

Theory volume

45%

Theory presentation

Practical exercises

Overall: no

Sink in theory without a straw of practice.

I remember distinctly learning only one thing from the book: what is a framework. (I am not telling you, read the book).

Comments

Do you have a different or the same opinion about a book? Or even better: you can recommend a learning material not listed here. Do not hesitate to share.