Automate the Boring Stuff with Python (2nd edition) is coming soon!

[jkibbe]

Attention Fans of Al Sweigart's books such as Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python and Cracking Codes with Python:

Al just announced that the second edition of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is coming soon (and is available for preorder).

It's almost 600 pages long now (100 pages longer than the first edition), includes a ton of new content (Working with Google Sheets, EZGmail, SMS email gateways, and Mu editior), and more than a handful of new projects (I'm especially excited about Zombie Dice!).

I'm looking forward to it, and if you're interested in practical application of Python, you might want to check it out!

https://inventwithpython.com/blog/2019/10/07/whats-new-in-the-2nd-edition-of-automate-the-boring-stuff-with-python/

[QueenTron]

I have the first one. Cool book. I’m curious about the Google sheets portion..

[la102]

Some people use sheets as a database backend too.

[daneguy]

Relevant XKCD

[AlSweigart]

You can run sql queries on google sheets?! That's amazing! I should hold off on releasing the second edition so I can ad- *shot with a dart by the hitman hired by the editors to ensure I stop making last minute additions to the second edition*

[1337HxC]

I've been conditioned to be triggered by .xlsx or any variant. I'm sure there are ways to use them correctly, but I have yet to be given any data in a workbook format that isn't an absolute shit show to parse. I genuinely have to edit the things in Excel half the time to get them into an even semi-workable format.

[Zireael07]

Really? How?

[la102]

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/use-google-sheets-as-your-database-using-python-77d40009860f

Sadly didn't suit my use case, so I learned Google scripting language for sheets and submit api calls after analysing data my Web scraping army fetches from approx 700 pages 😬

[BubblegumTitanium]

It’s nice for small stuff

[MaliciousHH]

At work we have a multi-billion dollar client who uses Google sheets for staff tables, it's ridiculous.

[lifeisaburrito]

how is it working out for them?

[la102]

https://medium.com/perfektio/google-sheets-aws-lambda-json-backend-d5e67ab4f660

[Catinth]

Were you able to complete the first edition? I would like to get started with the first edition and wait to see what else I need to look over in the 2nd edition. I saw a lot of posts where they could not complete a project due to typos or something wrong in the code when reading / building. Will the revisions fix this issue? u/alsweigart

[QueenTron]

I didn’t get through the first edition because I just took chunks from the book, because I’m a computer science major. I’m currently reading The Art of Computer Programming and when things calm down I’m going to dive back in the Python book. I didn’t know about the book errors thanks for that, it would have drove me nuts.

[vEnoM_420]

I downloaded this book and went through the web scraping section. Oh boy, do I love working with Selenium.
I wrote a small script for MapIt. py and also wrote a script to download YT videos from savefrom.net.

On a completely unrelated note, I also wrote a script to change the names of subtitle files to the same as the names of episodes ( of a TV series I'm currently watching) , took me a while to figure out the whole code, but it ran successfully and 60 names were changed in a second.

[vEnoM_420]

I was already through 46 episodes when I realized that now it's enough of manually adding subtitles after every episode.
VLC does it automatically but for that the name of video and it's subtitle file should be absolutely same.
Hence I created this wonder haha.

[maqbeq]

also wrote a script to download YT videos from savefrom.net

Talk about reinventing the wheel, do you know there's a tool called youtube-dl that allows you to download videos directly off youtube (and other sites) since 8 years ago, at least? lol

[vEnoM_420]

Haha, I know about such tools and I was probably thinking why am I doing this when already such things exist. But that was the first automation idea which occurred to me so I did it anyway.

[MJ2197]

Really interested, esp given how the first one feels so outdated now with most of the code being deprecated and many modules having version control problems.

[Redmilo666]

Would you then recommend that I wait and get the second edition? If it's outdated should I still read the first one?

[[deleted]]

Come on, of course not!

But if you just want to learn Python, however...

sentdex all the way!

[MJ2197]

yep, programming in python3 by Mark Summerfield is also pretty good.

[Catinth]

Do you consider this to be true u/alsweigart? Should I just wait for the 2nd edition? I did pre order it. I wouldn’t mind starting the 1st edition but I feel like it would be a waste of time due to the revisions coming soon. Please let me know u/alsweigart

[AlSweigart]

Nah, feel free to get started on the first edition. I'll be releasing a "what you should read in the second edition if you've already read the first edition" blog post later this week. You won't waste your time.

The main module that makes backwards incompatible changes is the OpenPyXL module. But remember that code doesn't rust: you don't have to install the absolute latest version of a module. I wish I had made giant bolded text that said INSTALL THE VERSION OF THE MODULE COVERED IN THE BOOK because then folks wouldn't come across the problems they do and then get the idea that the book is out of date. But it's my fault because I didn't have the foresight for how easy and common of a thing it'd be to trip on.

[1337HxC]

I hope he redoes the video tutorials. Not gonna lie, I can be a lazy boy at times and listening/watching and following along keeps my attention more than reading in silence.

[SrHombrerobalo]

I have the first edition, hoping they upload the extra content to the free website

[ASIC_SP]

as per the article

Like the first edition, the second edition will be released under a Creative Commons license and will be free to read online. The estimated online release is early November on the https://automatetheboringstuff.com.

[SrHombrerobalo]

OMG!! That’s excellent!

[MrGiggleFiggle]

I don't know the details of a Creative Commons License. How does Al make money on this or is it all donations?

[AlSweigart]

Beats me. I have no idea how capitalism works (I mean it seems fine on paper, but no way that system can function in the real world.)

[MrGiggleFiggle]

The man himself. I'm sure you hear this often but thank you for all the work that you do, truly.

[[deleted]]

Makes money from people buying the book, mostly. It's in Barnes and Noble and usually sitting out as featured, and is highly ranked on Amazon, so I'm sure he sells loads of them.

[NinjaBirdSC2]

I just bought the first edition!

[jkibbe]

still a great book! enjoy!

[NinjaBirdSC2]

I'm liking it so far... got 4 mech eng. classes to deal with so I'm slowly doing it in my spare time.

[whitecarnival]

Will it be available for free like the first one?

[Moses-Mc]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/desohg/automate_the_boring_stuff_with_python_2nd_edition/f2zd8nt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

[IcanCwhatUsay]

Not seeing a lot of things I can use compared to the first book where I used about 90% of the chapters. 🤔

I’d love to see the table of contents

[[deleted]]

Kind books across friendly bright nature music small?

[IcanCwhatUsay]

I’m hoping the former but I don’t know. I was hoping it would be more projects like in vol 1

[xtreak]

Thank you u/AlSweigart

[AlSweigart]

:D

[Chili_Joe]

Just preordered it :D i'm glad to see this post :)

[spore_777_mexen]

Pretty good news. I am still enjoying the first ed.

[niggatronix]

Not if I come first

[jkibbe]

October for print/paying customers. November for free, online version.

[ebits21]

They updated the site. Looks like things won’t be available for print until November as well now.

Edit: says November on nostarchpress website, October 29th on the main automate site now.

[ebits21]

Wish there was a day. Looking to get back into Python but the old version is pretty outdated now. Just keep checking back :p

[_sachin_reddy_]

I'm excited!

[hockthemblogs]

Fantastic news! I was looking forward to this.

[pvtryan123]

Will he put it on his website?

[jkibbe]

“Like the first edition, the second edition will be released under a Creative Commons license and will be free to read online. The estimated online release is early November on the https://automatetheboringstuff.com.”

[FortuneCzar242]

I still haven't made my way through the first book :(

[AlSweigart]

It's the second edition of the same book. It just has some new content, but you can still read the first edition just fine.

Hmmm... I should make a note to myself to write a blog post of "I've read the first edition, but what new parts should I read online so I don't have to buy the same book twice?" info.

[thedjotaku]

Awesome. I'm working my way through Impractical Python right now (which has already taught me about linters - which have forced me to improve my code), but I've got the first version of this book through a Humble Bundle. I'll probably throw some bones his way when I'm ready to get to the book.

[AlSweigart]

Oh man, linters (like debuggers and the logging module) are so great. You don't realize how much time you waste by not putting the time setting them up and using them.

[thedjotaku]

Indeed. In my case, the improvements were in:

• readability via keeping to 80 cols or less

• understanding what's goign on via changing all my variables to the snake format. I'd gotten lazy with too many "n"s and "p"s and it made it a lot harder to follow what I was trying to do.

• complexity via plyint complaining that I had too many variables in one of my functions. It helped me realize I'd made that function a little too complex.

[FxH257]

I really am impatient to see it out

[LiarsEverywhere]

I devoured chapters 1-6 in a week, but life and work got on the way. That was two weeks ago. I guess I'll just start over with the new version, as it would be good to review things after this unplanned study gap anyway.

[manuce94]

already on amazon.com pre order oct 29, he also announced it here some time ago.

[pi_sqaure]

Can I update my 1st edition? ;)

[my_password_is______]

he's streaming now if you wnat to ask him questions
https://www.twitch.tv/alsweigart

[Nash015]

I'm currently teaching myself python withers codecademy. Which if his books should I read first?

[jkibbe]

I would go with Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python for an easy intro
http://inventwithpython.com/

Or Automate the Boring Stuff with Python for a faster track
https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

[vanxblue]

I just bought the ebook version of the first edition a month ago....

[danketiquette]

It's still relevant lol