2 question from a python newbie!

[Alex Martelli]

"G. Willoughby" <sab at NOSPAM.freeuk.com> wrote in message
news:91tq58$cq6$1 at uranium.btinternet.com...
    [snip]
> P.S. so python is really used as a scripting language and nothing more?

Oh, no!  What gives you this idea?  Zope, for example, is a major
framework for developing and deploying web applications; it is
developed in Python.  It has been called "Python's killer app", in
fact (although not everybody would agree with giving it such an
exhalted status, it's a defensible assessment); Python's "core team"
now works for the firm which created and develops Zope.  In the
ActiveState release (or by adding the win32all extensions to the
standard release), Python can be used to write NT 'services', COM
servers, etc.

"A scripting language and nothing more" suggests a language
that only lives for limited customization/automation purposes "on
board" of a 'real' application; although this may be an outdated
view of higher-level (aka 'scripting':-) languages, the 'nothing
more' strongly suggests that this is the speaker's view.

The idea that a 'real application' is packaged as 'a stand-alone
EXE file' is rather dated.  Most "real apps" today come as Windows-
Installer packages (or other kinds of installer-generated self-
unpacking archives), and their installation involves placing several
files of many kinds in various strategic places, updating the Win
registry, etc.  Python applications are just as suitable for this kind
of deployment as those written in any other language; Gordon
McMillan's 'Installer' is a good start at getting such an application
into self-unpacking installer-file form, for example.


Alex