Book Image

Mastering Object-Oriented Python - Second Edition

By : Steven F. Lott
Book Image

Mastering Object-Oriented Python - Second Edition

By: Steven F. Lott

Overview of this book

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a relatively complex discipline to master, and it can be difficult to see how general principles apply to each language's unique features. With the help of the latest edition of Mastering Objected-Oriented Python, you'll be shown how to effectively implement OOP in Python, and even explore Python 3.x. Complete with practical examples, the book guides you through the advanced concepts of OOP in Python, and demonstrates how you can apply them to solve complex problems in OOP. You will learn how to create high-quality Python programs by exploring design alternatives and determining which design offers the best performance. Next, you'll work through special methods for handling simple object conversions and also learn about hashing and comparison of objects. As you cover later chapters, you'll discover how essential it is to locate the best algorithms and optimal data structures for developing robust solutions to programming problems with minimal computer processing. Finally, the book will assist you in leveraging various Python features by implementing object-oriented designs in your programs. By the end of this book, you will have learned a number of alternate approaches with different attributes to confidently solve programming problems in Python.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Tighter Integration Via Special Methods
11
Section 2: Object Serialization and Persistence
17
Section 3: Object-Oriented Testing and Debugging

Configuration file use cases

There are two configuration file use cases. Sometimes, we can stretch the definition slightly to add a third use case. The first two should be pretty clear:

  • A person needs to edit a configuration file
  • A piece of software will read a configuration file and make use of the options and arguments to tailor its behavior

Configuration files are rarely the primary input of an application program. Generally, they only tailor the program's behavior. For example, a web server's configuration file might tailor the behavior of the server, but the web requests are one primary input, and the database or filesystem is the other primary input. In the case of a GUI application, the user's interactive events are one input, and the files or database may be another input; a configuration file may fine-tune the application. The most notable exception...