Python Network Programming Cookbook by M. O. Faruque Sarker

Summary: Whether you need it depends on your tasks

Python Network Cookbook provides you with the samples related to the range of networking topics. Whether you will benefit from it depends heavily on your tasks. The point here is that the range of samples is really huge. Starting with data manipulation required for network based transfer, through socket based networking, interfaces related samples, IPv6, to topics covering HTTP, IMAP, and web services.

Now, don’t get me wrong, but the percentage of the book you will benefit from heavily depends on your day to day work. If you deal with http stuff all the time, you will find half of the book entertaining. On the other hand, if you do some low level development and you want to design your own means of transportation based on sockets, first half of the book will be of your interest.

What I have found particularly useful for me were the http related samples, web service handling, and port forwarding. But these are things that I can benefit from directly.

For sure, this book will be really interesting for the students who have to deal with networking related lectures. You will be able to jump directly into virtually any network related topic.

The book has one drawback. Some of the samples are Linux based. I am pretty sure you can use them anyway by using MacPorts or Cygwin, but still, it might be slightly frustrating for Windows and Mac users that some samples are marked as “Linux only”.

Before you buy the book, make a simple calculation how much you can benefit from it. If you decide that more than half of the book is useful for you – go ahead.

O’Reilly (print): Python Network Programming Cookbook