Python 2.0c1 on Python One

Tutorial

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whetting Your Appetite#

If you ever wrote a large shell script, you probably know this feeling: you’d love to add yet another feature, but it’s already so slow, and so big, and so complicated; or the feature involves a system call or other function that is only accessible from C …Usually the problem at hand isn’t serious enough to warrant rewriting the script in C; perhaps the problem requires variable-length strings or other data types (like sorted lists of file names) that are easy in the shell but lots of work to implement in C, or perhaps you’re not sufficiently familiar with C.

Library Reference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

`aifc` — Read and write AIFF and AIFC files#

Read and write audio files in AIFF or AIFC format.

This module provides support for reading and writing AIFF and AIFF-C files. AIFF is Audio Interchange File Format, a format for storing digital audio samples in a file. AIFF-C is a newer version of the format that includes the ability to compress the audio data.

Caveat: Some operations may only work under IRIX; these will raise ImportError when attempting to import the cl module, which is only available on IRIX.

Language Reference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction#

This reference manual describes the Python programming language. It is not intended as a tutorial.

While I am trying to be as precise as possible, I chose to use English rather than formal specifications for everything except syntax and lexical analysis. This should make the document more understandable to the average reader, but will leave room for ambiguities. Consequently, if you were coming from Mars and tried to re-implement Python from this document alone, you might have to guess things and in fact you would probably end up implementing quite a different language. On the other hand, if you are using Python and wonder what the precise rules about a particular area of the language are, you should definitely be able to find them here. If you would like to see a more formal definition of the language, maybe you could volunteer your time — or invent a cloning machine :-).

Extending and Embedding

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Acknowledgements

The following people have contributed sections to this document: Jim Fulton, Konrad Hinsen, Chris Phoenix, and Neil Schemenauer.

Extending Python with C or C++#

It is quite easy to add new built-in modules to Python, if you know how to program in C. Such extension modules can do two things that can’t be done directly in Python: they can implement new built-in object types, and they can call C library functions and system calls.

Python/C API

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction#

The Application Programmer’s Interface to Python gives C and C++ programmers access to the Python interpreter at a variety of levels. The API is equally usable from C++, but for brevity it is generally referred to as the Python/C API. There are two fundamentally different reasons for using the Python/C API. The first reason is to write extension modules for specific purposes; these are C modules that extend the Python interpreter. This is probably the most common use. The second reason is to use Python as a component in a larger application; this technique is generally referred to as embedding Python in an application.

Installing Python Modules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction#

Although Python’s extensive standard library covers many programming needs, there often comes a time when you need to add some new functionality to your Python installation in the form of third-party modules. This might be necessary to support your own programming, or to support an application that you want to use and that happens to be written in Python.

In the past, there has been little support for adding third-party modules to an existing Python installation. With the introduction of the Python Distribution Utilities (Distutils for short) in Python 2.0, this is starting to change. Not everything will change overnight, though, so while this document concentrates on installing module distributions that use the Distutils, we will also spend some time dealing with the old ways.

Distributing Python Modules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction#

In the past, Python module developers have not had much infrastructure support for distributing modules, nor have Python users had much support for installing and maintaining third-party modules. With the introduction of the Python Distribution Utilities (Distutils for short) in Python 1.6, this situation should start to improve.

This document only covers using the Distutils to distribute your Python modules. Using the Distutils does not tie you to Python 1.6, though: the Distutils work just fine with Python 1.5.2, and it is reasonable (and expected to become commonplace) to expect users of Python 1.5.2 to download and install the Distutils separately before they can install your modules. Python 1.6 (or later) users, of course, won’t have to add anything to their Python installation in order to use the Distutils to install third-party modules.

Macintosh Library Modules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction#

The modules in this manual are available on the Apple Macintosh only.

Aside from the modules described here there are also interfaces to various MacOS toolboxes, which are currently not extensively described. The toolboxes for which modules exist are: AE (Apple Events), Cm (Component Manager), Ctl (Control Manager), Dlg (Dialog Manager), Evt (Event Manager), Fm (Font Manager), List (List Manager), Menu (Moenu Manager), Qd (QuickDraw), Qt (QuickTime), Res (Resource Manager and Handles), Scrap (Scrap Manager), Snd (Sound Manager), TE (TextEdit), Waste (non-Apple TextEdit replacement) and Win (Window Manager).

Python 2.0c1 on Python One

Tutorial

Whetting Your Appetite#

Library Reference

aifc — Read and write AIFF and AIFC files#

Language Reference

Introduction#

Extending and Embedding

Extending Python with C or C++#

Python/C API

Introduction#

Installing Python Modules

Introduction#

Distributing Python Modules

Introduction#

Macintosh Library Modules

Introduction#

`aifc` — Read and write AIFF and AIFC files#