About Python

What's Python?

Python is a free, general purpose, open source, computer programming language. It is optimized for software quality, developer productivity, program portability, and component integration. Among other things, Python sports object-oriented programming; a remarkably simple, readable, and maintainable syntax; integration with C components; and a vast collection of precoded interfaces and utilities.

Today, Python's speed of development is leveraged by hundreds of thousands of developers around the world, in areas such as Internet scripting, systems programming, user interfaces, product customization, and more. Companies currently using Python include Intel, Disney, Yahoo!, Google, Industrial Light & Magic, Red Hat, NASA, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Origin Systems, Boeing, Seagate, JPL, Hewlett-Packard, and many more.

Although general-purpose, Python is often called a scripting language. This is partly because of its sheer ease of use--Python code is typically 1/3 to 1/4 the size of equivalent C++ or Java code. This term also reflects the fact that Python makes it easy to utilize and direct other software components--Python scripts can use C and C++ libraries, communicate over COM and CORBA, import Java class libraries, and more.

But perhaps Python's best asset is simply that it makes software development more rapid and enjoyable. Check out the links below to see why. If you have ample time to kill, you might also try browsing Python's Usenet newsgroup, comp.lang.python.

More about Python

Resources

• Python's official web site
• The Vaults of Parnusses library site
• The Starship Python community site
• O'Reilly's Python DevCenter resources site
• O'Reilly's other Python news site
• Fetch from Python's ftp site
• Read online Python manuals
• The Python FAQ file
• Email Python questions to the Python helpers list
• Fredrik Lundh's Tkinter Tkinter resource pages

Assorted

• An article about Python, middleware, and language changes
• Programming tools: ActiveState, and PythonWare
• The Python port for the Palm
• Information about Python training offerings
• O'Reilly Python books I've written: here, here, and here
• A list of all Python books I know about
• Python was created by Guido van Rossum
• Excerpts from an introduction to Python
• A Python versus Perl joke seen on rec.humor.funny
• More essential Python historical documents

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