Mark Lutz's Supplemental Bio Page
This page has additional biographical information and links beyond the summary on my
formal bio page.
All the items here reflect this page's latest substantial update: mid-2017.
See below for more on my
20-year training history,
22-year writing career, and
25-year Python tenure.
You may also be interested in
the more recent (and entertaining) career-retrospective page
here,
and the detailed summary of my 3-decade+ software career
here.
Update: After two decades, I ended my training business in 2016.
You can read the announcement, find the now-public class materials online,
and browse related links here.
From 1997 through 2015, I've taught 260 live
Python classes to roughly 4,000 students. My classes have been held
in the US, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and my clients
have represented a wide variety of software domains. The following
links provide more details:
- My training website lives
here.
- Lists of the classes I've taught and their locations can be found
here.
- The root page of the class workbook is online
here.
- Career details: my formal
bio page and frequently out-of-date
resume.
The web version of the class material and
workbook are available on request to
potential clients (though they are largely useless sans the class).
Update: these are now available publically to all
interested readers.
Much of the content and spirit of my classes is captured in my two
primary books and their reference companion, available from
O'Reilly Media and book
sellers worldwide:
[LP5E Book Cover]
The foundational book
Learning Python, 5th Edition
covers language fundamentals, and directly mirrors the majority of my 3 day classes.
[PP4E Book Cover]
The follow-up book
Programming Python, 4th Edition
focuses on applications, and reflects my more advanced topics and class sessions.
[PyRef5E Book Cover]
The reference book
Python Pocket Reference, 5th Edition
provides a concise companion and supplement for the other two books.
More Book Details
-
Learning Python
most closely reflects the majority of the training sessions I've taught.
Although it does not provide the live interaction of the classes, this
book is designed to be a self-paced and more comprehensive analog to them,
and can be a viable alternative for those seeking a first Python learning resource.
Its latest 2013 edition is up to date with version 3.X and 2.X Pythons,
and forms a solid base for following future Python evolution.
-
Programming Python,
first published in 1996 and today current with Python 3.X, provides a follow-up
for readers who wish to move on to explore Python's roles in common application
domains, including GUIs, the Web, systems tasks, databases, text, and integration.
Its content parallels application surveys of all classes, and topics of focus
in advanced training sessions.
-
Python Pocket Reference
serves as a companion to the other two books, providing supplemental details and concise
reference materials in a quick-access format. Its current 2014 edition was updated for
the latest Python 3.X and 2.X releases.
Together, my books have sold over 700,000 units as of late 2019;
are available in at least one dozen languages; and form a 3-volume set
of related Python documentation which spans 3,500 pages in its current
editions, and 11,000 pages among all its editions.
For more book resources, see my
book website.
More Writing Activities
For links to some of the online articles, papers, and interviews
I've done over the years, see these items,
most of which are also now chronicled in my career
retrospective page.
I also occasionally post random writings to
this page.
Python
itself continues to enjoy an active user community today. It is
generally considered to be one of the top 5 or 10 most widely
used programming languages in world, and is still growing in
popularity by most metrics.
For more details, as well as links to Python resources on the web,
please see the About Python page.