Suggestion for yet another (O'Reilly) Python book

[Tim Churches]

I recently purchased "Python Cookbook" and have thoroughly enjoyed
reading it, almost from cover to cover - it makes a great addition to
"learning Python". I'm eagerly anticipating "Python in a Nutshell".
However, I own another O'Reilly title which I find equally useful in
guiding my feeble Python efforts: "Mastering Algorithms with Perl", by
Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi and John Macdonald. Despite the fact that
it contains Perl code, this is a really superb 650 page introduction to
computer science algorithms with well-written, concise decriptions of 
problem domains and their solutions: things like data structures (basic
and advanced), sorting, searching, sets , matrices, graphs, strings,
geometric algorithms, number systems and number theory, cryptography,
probability and statistics and numerical analysis.

It strikes me that, if the authors and publisher of this work were
willing, it might be possible for them to team up with some Python gurus
and produce a Python version. A complete re-write would certainly not be
necessary - just substitute Python code for Perl and edit the text where
it discusses the example code. The text primarily focuses on comp sci 
problems and the principles of their solution, not on the details of the
provided Perl code, which is why the book is so useful even though my
eyes glaze over at the sight of the Perl scratchings, err, listings.
Thus the volume of text which would need to be rewritten is not so
great. Still not a minor undertaking, but the end result would be worth
its weight in depleted uranium, I think.
-- 

Tim C

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