Linux.com Article DB: Programming with Python - Part 1: Baby Steps

More to Come...

Now that wasn't so bad, was it? By now you hopefully have a reasonably good feel for Python's syntax and some of the basics. If you're craving for more, Python's home page is the best starting point. If you're an experienced Perl programmer, you're probably by now thinking, "Okay, so what?" Part 1 is intended just as a gentle primer, so you may be left wondering what Python can really do.

In the next part of this series, we'll explore some of the finer nuances of Python. We'll take a look at packages, scope rules, string handling, and class inheritance. We'll also crack open a few of the modules provided in the Python library and work through some examples, including sockets, the XML parser, Perl-compatible regular expressions (rejoice, Perl programmers!), and more. After Part 2 you should have enough under your belt to tackle almost any project in Python.

In Part 3, we're going to see how we can extend Python using the Python/C API. A lot of Python's internals will be covered, including reference counting, creating new Python types, and creating new class objects from C. We'll discover that the XML parser we toyed with in Part 2 doesn't meet our performance requirements, and create a module that uses gnome-xml to parse XML and make some functions available to Python space for accessing data.

Who knows what's in store for Parts 4 and beyond. I may cover creating GNOME applications in Python using an incredibly cool library called libglade. I may also talk about CORBA, and examine a way to create CORBA objects in Python using the lightning fast CORBA ORB ORBit. Please email me your comments and suggestions; these tutorials are meant for you, a member of the Linux development community!

Jason Tackaberry (tack@linux.com) works in Ontario, Canada as a Unix/Network administrator. He is the author of ORBit-Python, Python bindings for ORBit, and several soon to be released projects. Having over 12 years of development experience in C and C++, and hacking with Perl for 4 years, he has turned to Python as his new favorite language.

Originally Published: Wednesday, 30 August 2000	Author: Jason Tackaberry
Published to: develop_articles_tutorials/Development Tutorials	Page: 6/6 - [Printable]
Programming with Python - Part 1: Baby Steps This tutorial is the first in a series that will introduce you to Python, a dynamic, object-oriented language that is rapidly gaining popularity. Since I myself have garnered a modest Perl background before learning Python, I will target this tutorial at the Perl programmer. However, anyone with a little programming experience should find this text useful.

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More to Come... Now that wasn't so bad, was it? By now you hopefully have a reasonably good feel for Python's syntax and some of the basics. If you're craving for more, Python's home page is the best starting point. If you're an experienced Perl programmer, you're probably by now thinking, "Okay, so what?" Part 1 is intended just as a gentle primer, so you may be left wondering what Python can really do. In the next part of this series, we'll explore some of the finer nuances of Python. We'll take a look at packages, scope rules, string handling, and class inheritance. We'll also crack open a few of the modules provided in the Python library and work through some examples, including sockets, the XML parser, Perl-compatible regular expressions (rejoice, Perl programmers!), and more. After Part 2 you should have enough under your belt to tackle almost any project in Python. In Part 3, we're going to see how we can extend Python using the Python/C API. A lot of Python's internals will be covered, including reference counting, creating new Python types, and creating new class objects from C. We'll discover that the XML parser we toyed with in Part 2 doesn't meet our performance requirements, and create a module that uses gnome-xml to parse XML and make some functions available to Python space for accessing data. Who knows what's in store for Parts 4 and beyond. I may cover creating GNOME applications in Python using an incredibly cool library called libglade. I may also talk about CORBA, and examine a way to create CORBA objects in Python using the lightning fast CORBA ORB ORBit. Please email me your comments and suggestions; these tutorials are meant for you, a member of the Linux development community! Jason Tackaberry (tack@linux.com) works in Ontario, Canada as a Unix/Network administrator. He is the author of ORBit-Python, Python bindings for ORBit, and several soon to be released projects. Having over 12 years of development experience in C and C++, and hacking with Perl for 4 years, he has turned to Python as his new favorite language.
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