I'm a scientist and hobby programmer with long-time unix/linux and database (postgres) experience and a bit of python. I've always sort of dreaded webapp development, but been very curious at the same time. I knew i'd need to learn a good MVC framework eventually, but i was reluctant.



I discovered the online version of this book (which is free and open source; the website is a very nice way to search the book!), and have used it extensively in the last year to learn pylons and webapp development from the ground up, and i've really enjoyed the entire process.



I find this book unique in its "walk through all the details" approach. It's amazingly readable. Sure, some of the chapters are slower and more detail-filled than others, but I can sit and *read* it. It uses sentences that are arranged into paragraphs, into chapters. You know, the way books *used* to be? In any case, it's *not* a long, tedious list of facts designed to look like a book. I've relied upon online python and pylons docs to fill in some gaps, but overall, the book is thorough and spot-on.



I'm buying the physical book so that i can take it to my favorite coffeeshop and really read it. Screen reading is a great way to miss details. There are years of distilled experience in this book, up to and including how to structure a non-trivial development effort.