Book review: Python Programming for Arduino

Title: Python Programming for Arduino
Author: Pratik Desai
Publisher: PACKT Publishing
Publishing date: February 2015
Subtitle: Develop practical Internet of Things prototypes and applications with Arduino and Python

Link: https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/python-programming-arduino


Review

The book begins with an appropriate introduction to three main subjects: Python programming language, the dialect of C/C++ used in Arduino, and the basics of the Arduino platform.

Those subjects are covered in the first 47 pages and are not explained in depth, but all the main features are properly introduced. 
Anyone who is familiar with a high level language can find this jump start suitable for his needs.

The book is full of interesting tools and tips to speed up your learning experience.

I particularly appreciate that there are many examples of code; first of all in Python, but often also in Arduino's own language.

The next part of the book provides a lot of recipes for various components (servo and DC motors, LEDs, speakers and so on) presenting a mini-project with the appropriate hardware configuration and a suitable Python program to deal with it.
If you need to find the proper hardware to complete those mini-projects, you will be pleased to notice that there is a very useful choice of URLs to online stores (such as Amazon).

Then, the author describes how to build graphical interfaces with a GUI library called Tkinter, storing and reading data from files and plotting charts with input values from sensors.

At the end of this part, a more complex example is introduced: DIY Thermostat. To complete this project, Raspberry PI is described and there are the main guidelines to use it to deploy the project.

Another half of the book is devoted to illustrate the use of Arduino and Python dealing with networks. At the beginning the basics are presented; then the author deals with "Internet of Things" projects and very advanced features such as web servers, REST interfaces and Amazon AWS services.

A last project summarizes all the concepts listed above.

The book is very well written and covers many subjects. A reader can start with the parts that he finds more interesting, but reading the entire book is a must for everyone who needs a really good coverage of Arduino and Python.

Sometimes I would have liked to get a more detailed description of some topics, but I understand that it would have been impossible, considering the impressive number of examples and projects discussed in the whole book. 
I consider this book an ideal reading for programmers who want to work with sensors.