Python Standard Library

Preface

“We’d like to pretend that ‘Fredrik’ is a role, but even hundreds of volunteers couldn’t possibly keep up. No, ‘Fredrik’ is the result of crossing an http server with a spam filter with an emacs whatsit and some other stuff besides.”

—Gordon McMillan, June 1998

The Python 2.0 distribution comes with an extensive standard library, comprised of over 200 modules. This book briefly describes each module and provides one or more sample scripts showing how to use it. All in all, this book contains 360 sample scripts.

About This Book

“Those people who have nothing better to do than post on the Internet all day long are rarely the ones who have the most insights.”

—Jakob Nielsen, December 1998

Since I first stumbled upon Python some five years ago, I’ve spent hundreds of hours answering questions on the comp.lang.python newsgroup. Maybe someone found a module that might be exactly what he wanted, but he couldn’t really figure out how to use it. Maybe someone had picked the wrong module for the task. Or maybe someone tried to reinvent the wheel. Often, a short sample script could be much more helpful than a pointer to the reference documentation.

After posting a couple of scripts each week, for a number of years, you end up with a rather large collection of potentially useful scripts. What you’ll find in this book are the best parts from over 3,000 newsgroup messages. You’ll also find hundreds of new scripts added to make sure every little nook and cranny of standard library has been fully ...