July 2006
Beginner to intermediate
734 pages
20h 6m
English
Content preview from Python in a Nutshell, 2nd EditionBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 2. Installation
You can install Python, in classic (CPython), JVM (Jython), and .NET (IronPython) versions, on most platforms. With a suitable development system (C for CPython, Java for Jython, .NET for IronPython), you can install Python from its source code distribution. On popular platforms, you also have the alternative of installing from pre-built binary distributions. If your platform comes with a pre-installed version of Python, you may still want to install another richer or better updated one: if you do, I recommend you do not remove nor overwrite your platform’s original version—rather, install the other version “side by side” with the first one. In this way, you can be sure you are not going to disturb any other software that is installed as part of your platform: such software might well rely on the exact Python version that came with the platform itself.
Installing CPython from a binary distribution is faster, saves you substantial work on some platforms, and is the only possibility if you have no suitable C compiler. Installing from sources gives you more control and flexibility and is the only possibility if you can’t find a suitable pre-built binary distribution for your platform. Even if you install from binaries, I recommend you also download the source distribution because it includes examples and demos that may be missing from pre-built binary packages.
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.