linux python ideas

[Jeff Davis]

I think python's strength (for me) is in it's versatility and consistency. 
That combination is very powerful. 

When I say python is consistent, I mean that there are very few special 
cases, and few special character sequences to remember. That means you 
generally only have to reference the docs for functions, and not language 
issues. 

It's also versatile, because
(a) it has a good standard library
(b) the library is easily extended with python, C, or Java (if you're into 
jython). That gives python access to the vast standard libraries, and 
extended libraries (like APIs to virtually anything in existence), of C & 
Java.

I use it for:
* simple task automation, kind of like a shell script but easier to write.
* starting to use it for web programming
* practical extraction and report, text/binary data processing or 
reformatting, whatever you want to call it.
* methematics, such as statistics, but also really simple stuff when I have 
a shell more handy than a calculator :)
* embedded scripting (because it integrates so easily with C)
* small daemons and other small applications

Regards,
        Jeff





Rob Andrews wrote:

> I'll be giving a presentation on Python to my local LUG
> (http://lugoj.org) in a few weeks, and would like to point out at least
> a few things that would be of particular interest to linux users.
> 
> The idea is not "how to program in Python", which would take more than
> one quick presentation, but a one-off demonstration of ways in which
> Python is particularly useful for such a group.
> 
> Any suggestions would be appreciated, since my notes are pretty generic
> so far.
> 
> regards,
> Rob Andrews