Python Projects

B Python Standard Modules

The Python standard library contains well over 200 modules, although the exact number varies between distributions. Not all of these modules are recommended for use by the typical Python programmer; many have specialized uses associated with the Python internal modules and are intended mainly for use by developers working on Python itself. And certain other modules, remnants of older Python versions now superseded by more modern alternatives, are retained mainly for compatibility with old code.

This appendix lists all of the standard packages and modules that are recommended for “normal use” and highlights, in bold, those used or discussed in this book. Modules marked in the official documentation as deprecated, or intended for use by core developers, as well as some designed to be development tools, have been omitted from the list. A few minor clarifications to the descriptions have been added. Not all packages have been expanded to show the individual modules, and in these cases a package-level description is provided.

a

aifc	Read and write audio files in AIFF or AIFC format.
argparse	Command-line option and argument-parsing library.
array	Space-efficient arrays of uniformly typed numeric values.
asynchat	Support for asynchronous command/response protocols.
asyncio	Asynchronous I/O, event loop, coroutines, and tasks.
asyncore	A base class for developing asynchronous socket-handling services.
atexit	Register and execute cleanup ...