Impractical Python projects : playful programming activities to make you smarter / by Lee Vaughan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vaughan, Lee, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Python (Computer program language).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (428 pages)

Edition:

1st edition

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : No Starch Press, [2019]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Impractical Python Projects picks up where the complete beginner books leave off, expanding on existing concepts and introducing new tools that you’ll use every day. And to keep things interesting, each project includes a zany twist featuring historical incidents, pop culture references, and literary allusions. You’ll flex your problem-solving skills and employ Python’s many useful libraries to do things like: • Help James Bond crack a high-tech safe with a hill-climbing algorithm• Write haiku poems using Markov Chain Analysis • Use genetic algorithms to breed a race of gigantic rats • Crack the world’s most successful military cipher using cryptanalysis • Foil corporate security with invisible electronic ink • Derive the anagram, “I am Lord Voldemort” using linguistical sieves • Plan your parents’ secure retirement with Monte Carlo simulation • Save the sorceress Zatanna from a stabby death using palingrams • Model the Milky Way and calculate our odds of detecting alien civilizations • Help the world’s smartest woman win the Monty Hall problem argument • Reveal Jupiter’s Great Red Spot using optical stacking • Save the head of Mary, Queen of Scots with steganography Simulate volcanoes, map Mars, and more, all while gaining valuable experience using free modules like Tkinter, matplotlib, Cprofile, Pylint, Pygame, Pillow, and Python-Docx. Whether you’re looking to pick up some new Python skills or just need a pick-me-up, you’ll find endless educational, geeky fun with Impractical Python Projects .

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

About the Author

About the Technical Reviewer

BRIEF CONTENTS

CONTENTS IN DETAIL

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Who This Book Is For

What's in This Book

Where to Get Help

Onward!

1 SILLY NAME GENERATOR

Project #1: Generating Pseudonyms

Planning and Designing a Project

The Code

Summary

Further Reading

Practice Projects

Challenge Projects

2 FINDING PALINGRAM SPELLS

Finding and Opening a Dictionary

Project #2: Finding Palindromes

Project #3: Finding Palingrams

dnE ehT

Practice Project: Dictionary Cleanup

Challenge Project: Recursive Approach

3 SOLVING ANAGRAMS

Project #4: Finding Single-Word Anagrams

Project #5: Finding Phrase Anagrams

Project #6: Finding Voldemort: The Gallic Gambit

Project #7: Finding Voldemort: The British Brute-Force

Practice Project: Finding Digrams

Challenge Project: Automatic Anagram Generator

4 DECODING AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CIPHERS

Project #8: The Route Cipher

Project #9: The Rail Fence Cipher

5 ENCODING ENGLISH CIVIL WAR CIPHERS

Project #10: The Trevanion Cipher

Project #11: Writing a Null Cipher

6 WRITING IN INVISIBLE INK

Project #12: Hiding a Vigenère Cipher

The Platform

The Strategy

The Pseudocode

Detecting the Hidden Message

Practice Project: Checking the Number of Blank Lines

Challenge Project: Using Monospace Font

7 BREEDING GIANT RATS WITH GENETIC ALGORITHMS

Finding the Best of All Possible Solutions

Project #13: Breeding an Army of Super-Rats

Project #14: Cracking a High-Tech Safe

Further Reading.

Challenge Projects

8 COUNTING SYLLABLES FOR HAIKU POETRY

Japanese Haiku

Project #15: Counting Syllables

Managing Missing Words

The Count Syllables Code

A Program to Check Your Program

Practice Project: Syllable Counter vs. Dictionary File

9 WRITING HAIKU WITH MARKOV CHAIN ANALYSIS

Project #16: Markov Chain Analysis

The Training Corpus

Debugging

The Results

10 ARE WE ALONE? EXPLORING THE FERMI PARADOX

Project #17: Modeling the Milky Way

Estimating the Number of Civilizations

Selecting Radio Bubble Dimensions

Generating a Formula for the Probability of Detection

The Probability-of-Detection Code

Building the Graphical Model

Results

11 THE MONTY HALL PROBLEM

Monte Carlo Simulation

Project #18: Verify vos Savant

Project #19: The Monty Hall Game

Practice Project: The Birthday Paradox

12 SECURING YOUR NEST EGG

Project #20: Simulating Retirement Lifetimes

Finding Historical Data

Using the Simulator

13 SIMULATING AN ALIEN VOLCANO

Project #21: The Plumes of Io

A Slice of pygame

Running the Simulation

Practice Project: Going the Distance

14 MAPPING MARS WITH THE MARS ORBITER

Astrodynamics for Gamers

Project #22: The Mars Orbiter Game

Game Assets

15 IMPROVING YOUR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH PLANET STACKING

Project #23: Stacking Jupiter

The pillow Module.

Working with Files and Folders

The Video

Challenge Project: Vanishing Act

16 FINDING FRAUDS WITH BENFORD'S LAW

Project #24: Benford's Law of Leading Digits

The Dataset

Practice Project: Beating Benford

APPENDIX PRACTICE PROJECT SOLUTIONS

Chapter 1: Silly Name Generator

Chapter 2: Finding Palingram Spells

Chapter 3: Solving Anagrams

Chapter 4: Decoding American Civil War Ciphers

Chapter 5: Encoding English Civil War Ciphers

Chapter 6: Writing in Invisible Ink

Chapter 8: Counting Syllables for Haiku Poetry

Chapter 10: Are We Alone? Exploring the Fermi Paradox

Chapter 11: The Monty Hall Problem

Chapter 13: Simulating an Alien Volcano

Chapter 16: Finding Frauds with Benford's Law

INDEX.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781492069454

1492069450

9781593278915

1593278918

OCLC:

1079393222