I first got to know Fabrizio when he became our lead developer a few years ago. It was quickly apparent that he was one of those rare people who combine rigorous technical expertise with a genuine care for the people around him and a true passion to mentor and teach. Whether it was designing a system, pairing to write code, doing code reviews, or even organizing team card games at lunch, Fab was always thinking not only about the best way to do the job, but also about how to make sure that the entire team had the skills and motivation to do their best.

You'll meet the same wise and caring guide in this book. Every chapter, every example, every explanation has been carefully thought out, driven by a desire to impart the best and most accurate understanding of the technology, and to do it with kindness. Fab takes you under his wing to teach you both Python's syntax and its best practices.

I'm also impressed with the scope of this book. Python has grown and evolved over the years, and it now spans an enormous ecosystem, being used for web development, routine data handling, and ETL, and increasingly for data science. If you are new to the Python ecosystem, it's often hard to know what to study to achieve your goals. In this book, you will find useful examples exposing you to many different uses of Python, which will help guide you as you move through the breadth that Python offers.

I hope you will enjoy learning Python and become a member of our global community. I'm proud to have been asked to write this, but above all, I'm pleased that Fab will be your guide.

Naomi Ceder

Python Software Foundation Fellow