The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python, Now Published!
In March of 2011, I started a project known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python, a documentation website (available at python-guide.org) designed to document much of the collective tribal knowledge from various sectors of the Python community. It intends to serve as both a guidebook for newcomers to Python and an excellent reference for seasoned veterans.
The project was, and continues to be, a big success for the Python community. Today, the website receives between 6,000–13,000 individual visitors every day. Community contributions, which are encouraged and responsible for the majority of the content, have been made by over 100 individuals.
Book Publication with O'Reilly
I'm very proud, humbled, and excited to announce that, as of this week, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python is available for purchase in the form of a classic O'Reilly technical book (animal cover and all)!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python on Amazon!
It is also available on the Kindle!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python for Kindle!
And, because the goal of this project has always been to serve the wonderful Python community, all proceeds from sales are being donated directly to the Django Girls Foundation!
✨ Proceeds Donated to Django Girls ✨
The Django Girls Foundation is a Charitable Incorporated Organization (“the CIO”). The goal of the foundation is to advance the education of the public in particular but not exclusively women in the subject of computer science by providing or assisting in the provision of programming workshops and educational material.
I considered many different organizations to support through this avenue, ranging from the Python Software Foundation to various non-profit mental health organizations, but decided that the Django Girls Foundation is an ideal fit, as the goal of the organization perfectly matches to that of this project:
Lowering the barrier to entry.
♻️
Moving Forward
I am not aware of any active plans to keep the printed book up-to-date with the website, although I'm sure that may be commissioned at some point in the distant future. As for python-guide.org, nothing has changed: contributions are still accepted on a regular basis, and the site will only continue to grow in traffic (e.g. value & usefulness).
If you'd like to contribute, I heavily encourage you to! Documentation improvement/augmentation is (for me, personally) one of the most simple yet rewarding types of open source contribution. The guide is an opinionated one, so there's always a chance that your suggestions won't be accepted based purely on subjectivity, but— nearly all pull requests are accepted :)
Contribute to python-guide.org on GitHub!
Special Thanks
Preparing the documentation/web-style content for print publication took nearly two years of intensive labor. While I watched/oversaw the entire process, all credit for the actual publication of this book goes to Tanya Schlusser, who is 100% responsible for making this conversion of content distribution happen.
Thanks, Tanya.
✨🍰✨
P.S. Send me an email if you'd like to get your copy of the book signed! I'd be honored :)
