Preface

Months ago, in 2013, I was contacted by Packt Publishing professionals with the mission of writing a book about parallel programming using the Python language. I had never thought of writing a book before and had no idea of the work that was about to come; how complex it would be to conceive this piece of work and how it would feel to fit it into my work schedule within my current job. Although I thought about the idea for over a couple of days, I ended up accepting the mission and said to myself that it will be a great deal of personal learning and a perfect chance to disseminate my knowledge of Python to a worldwide audience, and thus, hopefully leave a worthy legacy along my journey in this life.

The first part of this work is to outline its topics. It is not easy to please everybody; however, I believe I have achieved a good balance in the topics proposed in this mini book, in which I intended to introduce Python parallel programming combining theory and practice. I have taken a risk in this work. I have used a new format to show how problems can be solved, in which examples are defined in the first chapters and then solved by using the tools presented along the length of the book. I think this is an interesting format as it allows the reader to analyze and question the different modules that Python offers.

All chapters combine a bit of theory, thereby building the context that will provide you with some basic knowledge to follow the practical bits of the text. I truly hope this book will be useful for those adventuring into the world of Python parallel programming, for I have tried to focus on quality writing.