Reviews for Rapid GUI Programming with Python and QT: The Definitive Guide to PyQt Programming (Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development)

1. A must read book for everyone using Qt with Python

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, May 12st, 2010

   Although I had searched the internet for examples, and there are some, I wanted to dive into Python and Qt more. This book helps me very much with that. Step by step it teaches how to make a good user interface with Qt for Python programs.
   I would recommend it to everyone who likes to know more about using Qt together with Python!

2. Not great

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   This is NOT a great book, unfortunately its the best available (at the time of writing) on the subject.
   
   First of all, there's nothing wrong with Python or QT4. I'm quite excited by the possibility that QT offers and think it might actually pose as a legitimate contender to MS XAML based technologies. I would suggest that you get yourself a decent IDE (This is the 21st Century after all) attempting to write code without the use of code assistance is just ridiculous so don't use a plain text editor. I found Eclipse with the Pydev plugin to be excellent!
   
   This book is bad for the following reasons:
   
   i)Too much padding, could be a lot shorter. The author just needs to get to the point!
   
   ii)Too much effort to dissect the code examples. Each chapter usually contains a few key points, why couldn't these be shown in simpler examples that I could read in 30 seconds rather than crawling through several hundred lines of code trying to get the point of the example. If the author felt like some sample applications would have been useful he should have separated them out and clearly marked them!
   
   iii)Bad programming practices in the examples. The author tends to use monster methods rather than splitting up the functions to make them easier to read.
   
   I wish I could find a book that provides a good reference to PyQT4, this doesn't cut it. There is a great opportunity here for someone to write a good book on this important subject.

3. Qt4 and Python, a perfect match.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   I own quite a few programming books and this book (Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt) may have a rather long name but do not let that fool you. This is one of the best programming books I have read (actually I am over half way through it as I write).
   Mark Summerfield really gets it right, sensible applications to write without the tiresome comments about Monty Python.
   The applications you create are fully fledged applications.
   
   I have no trouble recommending this book for anyone looking to create fast professional applications with Python & Qt4.

4. My best return on investment this year!!!!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12rd, 2008

   Well before reading this book, i was a competent self taught php web developer who had not done any gui development at all.
   
   The opportunity arose from one of my clients to re-develop there epos / erp system to bring it into the 21 century with a networked gui application which seamlessly connected with there website via web services(they had this old legacy system coded in fortran)
   
   Know i took this challenge not knowing how i was going to do it but was given some ley way on time as i was charging half the amount another software company had quoted.
   
   I knew python for speed of development was the way to go but what toolkit to go with it? i looked at qt and wxpython but decided on the more advanced features in qt.
   
   So i got my commercial license of qt and pyqt as well as a copy of Wing IDE and i was ready to go. I just need a strong tutorial for both qt and python as I've never used them before.
   
   I must admit this book was one of the reasons why i went down this path as a friend already had it and was using it in his own projects, so it was already highly recommend to me, and as soon as i got it i was not disappointed. In my first few hours i already had my first application of a calculator up and running. In a week I'm now working on the application for my client which i have to say is going at a blistering pace. if you really want to make quality applications rapidly fast then you will not go far wrong with this book.
   
   Its clear, concise and comprehensive. If you have done a bit of web programing in any language before then yo will easily transfer those skills to this framework and this book gives you the confidence to do it quickly.
   
   PyQt is for pragmatic programmers who truly want to create great every day applications fast. If you do this for a living then this book really is a manual to "Get Rich Quick" as it shows you just how to achieve that by creating quality application you could sell that companies and individuals need.

5. The Programming book I've been looking for for years - shame about the exhaustingly long and confusing title!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12nd, 2008

   This book is a fantastic introduction to computer programming!
   
   OK, let me qualify that statement a little.
   I am a hobby computer programmer. I now consider myself to be a relatively competent exponent of the art, but it has been a very painful journey to get to this point. I made so many errors along the way. I have chosen the wrong operating system, the wrong programming languages, spent WAY too much money to produce 3rd rate looking applications . I own heaven knows how many computer books, have installed lots of programming bloatware, but have now found my comfort zone using the tools which are the subject matter of this book. Sadly only now have I found this book!
   
   So here's my take on this. If you want to learn to program, and want to create fantastic, native looking graphical user interfaces, the tools you need are
   1. Python
   2. A text editor
   3. Qt4
   4. Sip and PyQt4
   5. A computer (be it linux, mac or windoze)
   6. This book.
   
   I'm going to assume you have a computer (you're reading this on Amazon, after all..).
   So all you need to buy is this book. Everything else is available FREE (welcome to the beautiful world of open-source)
   
   This book is beautifully thought out. It works through the basic Python syntax, then introduces the Qt tools, and explains how to overlay an interface to your code (yep... that's the way to do it... I found out to my detriment that m$ visual studio tends to encourage the opposite approach!)
   
   Buy it.
   It really is the only book you need to get started on your programming journey.
   
   Cheers
   Neil.