Python is a programming language which is interpreted, object-oriented and interactive. It is considered a high level language, most often compared to Perl, Tcl and Java. There are many excellent introductions to Python (both free and non-free), but I would recommend How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - Learning with Python as a great starting place. The Python for Beginners area of python.org contains many other on-line tutorials to sink your teeth into, if you so desire.
When learning a new language, I find it helpful to try and target a project and then dive into the language, trying to implement the project in the new language. Seeing as how python has a vast library of routines, I have decided to target a project involving non-trivial networking(a first for me). The first stage of the project will be a chat server, which will allow numerous connections from client machines (via telnet) and that will take the text sent by each client to the server and echo it to all connected clients (think IRC with one room, I guess).
In order to implement the chat server, I am using the asyncore and asynchat modules of the Python 2.2.3 library. Both of these modules originated in the Medusa project, which "is an architecture for building long-running, high-performance network servers in Python."
I should have the chat server completed in the next few days, and when I do, I'll post the information (and source code) here for all to browse.
posted at: 14:07 | path: /computers/programming/python | permanent link to this entry