[Tutor] Modules and Python tutorial by S. Thurlow - opinions please

[Lisi]

Thanks, Steven. :-)  I'll get back to this this evening.
Lisi

On Saturday 20 August 2011 16:51:07 Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Lisi wrote:
> > I have got myself well and truly bogged down.  I need to change the angle
> > from which I am looking.  I only have a short while left for now in which
> > to make some sort of progress with Python.  What do people think of:
> >
> > http://www.sthurlow.com/python/
> >
> > Is it reasonably accurate and therefore useful?
>
> As far as I can tell after a lightning fast read of it (about three
> minutes to skim a few of the lessons), it seems perfectly fine to me.
>
> [...]
>
> > To show you what I mean:
> > How to save and run a bash script:
> > Write your script
> > save it in the normal manner
> > chmod to x for everyone you want to be able to execute it.  (E.g. where
> > owner is root: perhaps 744)
> > Either move the file into a directory on your path, or add the directory
> > that the file is in to your path.
> > It will now run.
> >
> > Can anyone point me to a similar set of basic instructions for Python
> > modules??
>
> More or less exactly the same, except you need a hash-bang line at the
> top of the script so that the shell knows that it is Python and not a
> shell script. So you can add a line like:
>
> #!/usr/bin/python
>
> at the VERY TOP of your script (it MUST be in the first line for the
> shell to recognise it).
>
> (This is exactly the same practice for all scripting languages,
> including Perl, Bash, Ruby, and many more... if the hash-bang line is
> missing, the shell will try to execute the file with "sh".)
>
>
> As an alternative, you can call the script from the shell prompt like this:
>
>
> $ python path/to/my/script.py
>
> (naturally you don't type the $ that is just the shell prompt)
>
>
> Finally, you can put your script somewhere in the PYTHONPATH and then
> call it like this:
>
>
> $ python -m script
>
>
> Note that this way you leave the .py off the end -- you're not telling
> Python to *run* a file, but to *import* a file, which happens to run it
> as a side-effect. I don't recommend you use this technique until you're
> more comfortable with Python. I mention it only for completeness.