I needed a book to help me through connecting Python and QT together so that I could write GUI programs in Python. This book definitely did that for me so I am satisfied.

This book is written as a classroom textbook, not as a reference. Part I is on Python programming (the first 100 of 500+ pages). I did not need that but in the context of a textbook it's good to have everything between two covers.

I like the fact that it covers a broad range of material beyond GUI programming including database access and model/view programming. I think I will be digging into it for quite some time.

I started cross-platform GUI development back in 1992 when a client asked us to migrate an IBM Mainframe application using 3270 access (available on our WinXX, OS/2, Mac, SunOs, and Solaris clients [plus an unofficial Next])to a Solaris DB/Document Management Server maintaining the same end user set. We did it using a Proprietary C package that has since imploded. Nowadays, we do the same thing, but the number and nature of clients and servers had changed. Now, we might keep our data on the web server and let the browser sort it out.
Three years I discovered a great product with a dual mode license called Qt: If you want to do open source then download the code and sign an open type license; if you want to completely retain the rights to you latest product coded in Qt, then buy and download a developer version for unique platform-type you support. Qt, the product I've been describing, is a great product in it's own write, and the author of the book I'm supposed to be reviewing, is also the author of books about the Qt application itself: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4C++ GUI Programming with Qt4. And as I practiced my C++ and learned signals and slots and starting slapping together home based projects,I realized that Qt was the cross-platform package for me. It forms the basis of the KDE desktop language for the Kubuntu 3.4, and I had fallen for KDE after using Knoppix as a teting tool for diagnosing dead Linux boxes.
So when I learned that Riverside Computing of the UK had produced PyQt as well as other products that would allow the Qt packages to be programmed with Python instead of/in addition to C++, I was ecstatic. Searches of the Internet showed much in the way of open documentation. Searches of Amazon.com showed only "Rapid Gui Programming with Python and Qt". So this is the book for learning to integrate the great improvements in software development time associated with a interpretive, byte-code interpreter, Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation of the byte-codes (exactly the same model for Java) with the power and capability of the Qt cross-platform development tool. And also keep in mind that Qt is not just windows. It includes containers, threading, multiple-language support (including automatic support for right-to-left languages like arabic and hebrew).
This book is just fantastic.











































































































































































































































































d

Good written book. covers all you need to know about python as programming language and QT to make you produce python GUI applications.

To read this book you don't already have to know any programming language, the book will teach you; but it would make the whole thing a little easier if you already knew some other (or python) programming language.

Finally i made possible to buy this Book, when I'm just starting to develop in PyQt (http://opencoffee.lnxteam.org) even having basic Knowledge of Python, this book results a very well material. I am professor from the Univ. and my own Linux/Free software Centre and I found this book that has the right way of teachings.
Another important detail is, i am Spanish speaker and i could easily read, speak and translate English. But most of the times I found many programming books that has a way to explain things not thinking if that many languages speakers could read it. This one is a very exception: it is easy to understand, even when you native language is not English.

So, Congrats Mark!!

The book contains one of the best Python introductions I've seen so far, which means it's useful even when you don't know Python, yet. After the introduction, you'll love it :)

After that come 19 chapters which are packed with useful information in well digestible bits so the reader won't feel overwhelmed. When you're a professional, you won't waste time finding the information you need and when you're a beginner, you can easily follow every step as the author builds the examples from ground up.

When I started with PyQt, I was a seasoned Python developer but I knew little about Qt. With the help of the book, I could write a complex application using even more complex widgets like QTextEditor (including HTML formatting) in a very short time. Developing was a very nice experience because the book always seemed to contain just the answer that I was looking for.

This book is perfect for someone new to the world of GUI programming. It provides a detailed walk-through of generating a useful and robust user interface. Providing a firm foundation in python and OOP and then adding both knowledge of Qt and a best practices approach to GUI programming.
If you aren't new to programming and GUI creation than this book is still a very useful source of information if a bit hard to get through. The feature this book lacks which many love in O'Reilly books is a component by component breakdown of features with good examples. This is not really a flaw as this book is a ground up approach, however if you are looking for something akin to PyQT In a Nutshell you won't find it here. That being said, it is the best book on PyQt4 out there, and even if there were many other PyQt4 book to choose from this is still an excellent learning tool.

In short this is an excellent book for people new to Python and Qt, especially those without GUI experience. Those with more experience may be bothered by the lack of a more modularized approach to learning PyQt4 as this book follows a more chronological approach of the design process. It's not quick and dirty, but it is robust and well written.

I've been programming in python for about 2 years, and programming in PyQt for about a year. But I haven't had time to really delve into how things work, and how they relate to each other. The on-line documentation falls short in this area, so this book is a great help! I learned some new stuff about Python in the first few chapters, but the biggest help was the explanations of how PyQt works, and how to use it to the best advantage.

Advanced programmer libraries and any versed in Python in particular will find RAPID GUI PROGRAMMING WITH PYTHON AND QT an invaluable guide, covering the mechanics of building GUI applications that run on all major operating systems. From custom widgets to advanced model and view programming, this book's depth and technical detail lend to any serious programming collection.

For any open source programming tool, there are always those who are quick to point out that free online documentation is of excellent quality and that a commercially published book adds questionable value. Indeed, the open process by which open source tools are made, which reveals the why's & wherefore's of the internal workings to anyone who looks, leads directly to the production of excellent online documentation; this is one of the great strengths of open source software. But everyone's needs are different. A college student or free software volunteer often has looser deadlines, less budget, and a more perfectionist attitude than, for example, a non-expert programmer, working in industry, trying to expeditiously solve a specific problem. A book of this genre is intended mainly for the latter audience, whereas the former may be disappointed at spending $50 when a web browser could have done the job. Cash-strapped college students, I know your pain; I used to be one. This book is not a particularly cost-effective study aid. If you live and breathe GUI progamming and can type out GTK2 and wxwidget classes by heart, then this book is probably a waste of time for you.

Having said that, I review this book with a view toward its value to its intended audience: Does buying this book and using it get the job done $50 cheaper, including the value of your own professional time, compared to the best available alternative? My experience is yes.

I am an electrical engineer, but not a programming expert. I have, at various times in my career, flipped bits in assembly language, suffered the rigors of Fortran, and slapped together contraptions in Matlab, VEE, Labview, etc. I have also had the misfortune of programming production test automation in Visual Basic, because that is what commercial instruments natively support. It is the shortcomings of VB that bring me to PyQT. I need to write test code that is portable, maintainable, and reliable. To give just one example, I don't want to fly across the Pacific Ocean to program workarounds for bugs in VB, because machines in the Chinese factory run Win98, and my development system in the US runs Win2k, and VB doesn't behave the same. But this is a book review, not a place to extol the virtues of PyQT nor criticize VB.

I have programmed in Python before, though for me Python has always been a language for one-off numerical or string processing tasks, where a spreadsheet is too limited and my bash script-fu is short of the task. I found the first three chapters on Python a helpful review, though it is not a complete instruction in Python. Compete beginners to Python will probably want to buy a separate book or work through the python.org tutorials. The author glosses over things that could trip up beginners; tellingly, he uses the term 'pythonic' without introduction. He is, however, careful to point out pitfalls that can waylay real-world production code, or would be of interest to experienced Perl/Ruby/VB programmers, like how Python handles the distinctions regarding {im}mutable types and {deep|shallow} copying.

I have never programmed QT before, and this book is indeed a complete introduction to QT. You don't need to know anything about QT nor how to program in C++ (QT's native language). Being able to read C++ syntax helps, though, because this book is not a QT reference, so you will probably have to look things up in the online QT references, which are written in C++.

It is something of a truism that the best way to learn a language is to read & understand someone else's well-written code, and then use that to write a program of your own. That is the approach used here, and the printed book format permits interleaving fragments of code with explanatory material in a way that doesn't work well on a computer screen. As such the text complements rather than duplicates the online documentation.

Regarding the book as a physical object, the quality is good but some extra features would have been nice. No CD is included, which I consider an oversight for a book at this price. Even the shortest examples lack source code listings, except as snippets woven into the text. You have to download the example code from a URL buried in the introduction, which is odd considering how important the example code is to this style of instruction. Occasional sidebar topics, icons, and cross-references help to organize the material, though not to the spoon-feeding level of "For {Dummies|Idiots}" books. The index is a bit above average for a book of this type, better than pure machine-generated grep output that sometimes passes for an index these days, but not as good as the best manual indices of decades past. The cover, binding, & paper stock are of decent quality. The book will stay open to just about any page when laid on a table, and the glue looks like it will, well probably, hold the sheaves in for many years. No color is used, nor edge printing to help find the chapters, which would have been helpful for a book this long.