PyThon (WebSeitz/wikilog)

WebSeitz/wikilog

PyThon

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last edited by BillSeitz on Jun 21, 2008 1:20 pm

Very cool Computer Programming language:

cross-platform, Open Source
managed, interpreted, Scripting Language, Dynamic Language : no memory management, builds, etc.
easy to read (uses indents, no stupid punctuation)

http://www.python.org/

http://www.python-eggs.org/links.html

RemoteWikiURL:http://wiki.python.org/moin/

Bill De Hora in 2004 on the ubiquity of PyThon and the passing of objections

Learning materials:

http://linkmingle.com/list/List-of-Free-Online-Python-Books-freebooksandarticles
PyThon:PythonBooks has some interesting fringe titles
links to tutorials on various topics http://www.awaretek.com/tutorials.html
Lots of online docs available at http://www.webdocs.org/
chapters online from EffBot's guide to the standard library. Plus various targeted guides
official [PEP]-8 style guide http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html
- [David Goodger] recommendations
old YaHoo internal document on Python Coding Standards (by [Dave Jeske] of eGroups)
- other guidelines and idioms
Jeffrey P Shell recommends some [Source Code] worth reading.
[Infrequently Answered Questions] by Peter Norvig - lots of bits on dictionaries, types, etc.
http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/ course materials
http://www.diveintopython.org/ [Dive Into Python] by Mark Pilgrim
http://www.byteofpython.info/ [Byte Of Python]
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ How to Think like a [Computer Scientist]
How to think like a Pythonista
approaches to [Large Scale] PyThon app development: http://www.egenix.com/files/python/EuroPython2004-Developing-large-scale-applications-in-Python.pdf
[Py Protocols] give Wouldn't it be nice if you could just declare "I want this object to have this behavior" and magically convert whatever value you have, to the type you need? [Py Protocols] lets you do just that, cleanly, quickly, and robustly - even with built-in types or other people's classes. (works with ZoPe)
- [David Mertz] article on [Py Protocols] (which is part of PEAK - PyThon Enter Prise Application Kit, which is a child of [Trans Warp], all by Phillip J Eby)
Ian Bicking in 2007 on raising Exceptions

From 2004: Since my focus is web/net development, I'm working with ZoPe mainly right now.

IDE-s

[Active State] IDLE editor has some value - now also for MacOsX?
[Active State] [KomOdo]: if you're doing "commercial" work you're supposed to buy the Professional version for $300 instead of the Personal $30 version
[Dr Python] IDE http://drpython.sourceforge.net/ (uses Wx Python)
[SPE] http://spe.pycs.net/ (uses Wx Python)
[David Mertz] Dec'03 article on JEdit, IDLE, LEO
discussion thread

debugging:

[Python Win]
pdb/ddd, which does run on Ms Windows with cygwin, etc. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2005/09/01/debugger.html

[IPython] enhanced Interactive Python shell

one guy's dev setup

see Unit Test

how to write main() functions

one of my newbie peeves is having python find a new library I may download. This involves sys.path

a couple brief mentions
- this mentions [Python Path] and other inputs
  - this suggests setting [Python Path] in autoexec.bat (in [MsWin]; run msconfig); also check the Registry (not sure how the 2 cases interact) and environment variables; everyone is confused; here's a place to look if all else fails. This recommends not changing [Python Path] anywhere.
does python look in the subdirectories of the entries in sys.path? What should go inside the site-packages directory , and what shouldn't?
- I think only 3rd-party packages should go in here
sys.path.append only alters sys.path while Python is running. How make it stick?
- .pth file? see this and this and this
  - this doesn't let you set any full directory - the entries in the .pth file are names of subdirectories of the directory containing the .pth file itself; and that file must sit in one of a few directories:
    - in UNIX - in /usr/lib/site-python/ (note this is outside the directory holding python itself) (or in .../site-packages/ subdirectory of python)
    - in Ms Windows - probably the directory of python itself (check sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix values)
  - and my testing says that you can't nest directories with levels of .pth files
  - and I'm pretty sure searching doesn't walk down subdirectories (reading [Learning Python] about how packages can be imported by directory reference - if A is on search path, then you can import A.B.C to import a module C within subdirectory B of A)
    - this disagrees - Paths can be absolute or relative, in which case they're relative to the directory containing the .pth file. Any directories added to the search path will be scanned in turn for .pth files.
a couple pieces on which variant of import to use
my conclusion:
- don't touch [Python Path] registry or environment variables
- put 3rd-party libraries in site-packages unless they tell you otherwise
- make a seitz subdirectory of main python directory, plus a seitz.pth file to point to it; do same for each separate employer