Python Language

Python is a simple but powerful programming language. Its lack of types, general-purpose design and the fact that it is run in an interpreter puts it in competition with the Perl Language; however, it is entirely superior to perl.

• http://www.python.org/
• http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/ Python wiki
• http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/tut.html the tutorial
• http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/ the standard library reference manual
• http://www.python.org/doc/current/ref/ref.html the language reference manual (which you won't need)

If you haven't already, you should set about Learning Python.

Python was created to be something of a modern Lo Go - simple enough to teach to non-programmers, but with great power. Indeed, its ease of learning is shocking; Tom Anderson went to having heard of python to having rewritten the wiki rendering engine in it in a couple of hours. It's almost like you just rest your fingers on the keyboard and code magically appears on the screen.

However, Python is really a 'stealth Smalltalk' - it has most of the important features of the classic OO language, but with a more digestible syntax and a more cooperative implementation.

One of the most heated debates between the advocates of various programming languages languages is Python's use of whitespace in defining code-blocks. This has advantages and disadvantages, but, to someone from an Algol Language background (C/C++/Java/Perl programmers), it looks weird, weird as hell; almost as weird as the Lisp Language, in fact. Still, one gets used to it surprisingly fast.

Python has good support for XML:

• http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/topics/howto/xml-howto.html an XML howto
• http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/markup.html the library manual section on XML etc

(When you say good.... It doesn't do a very good job of obeying some of the character set and escaping parts of the spec. There is no support for schemas - validation or PSVI. I'm sure I have found other problems with it. However if you want to use if for the kind of XML that is RSS feeds or just a bloated way of storing your confic file it is probably OK, particularly if it is all in ASCII with no complicated characters)

Python seems to attract more attention from computer science people than perl, probably because it is much cleaner. Consequently, there are some hoopy add-ons and variants floating around:

• http://www.jython.org/ Python in Java; code is compiled to Java bytecode, and so, in a good JVM, can benefit from an optimising native code compiler, an advanced garbage collector, and other things which make it go fast
• http://psyco.sourceforge.net an importable module for increasing execution speed of Python programs, without the need for altering your source code (much)
• http://www.stackless.com/ stackless Python; this is a version of the regular Python interpreter that doesn't use the C stack, but rather manages its own local storage; this frees it up to implement virtually incomprehensible features like continuations, coroutines and generators in an elegant and efficient way

Python is Open Source, being distributed under the Python License (< http://www.python.org/2.2/license.html>). This is like the BSD License, in that the only substantial restriction it places on the licensee is that the originator's copyright be retained in any derivative version; it has an additional restriction, that a derivative work must include a brief summary of the changes made. This license is a GPL Compatible License.

So, Join The Glorious Python Programming Revolution!