| This is Python release 1.5 alpha 4 |
| ================================== |
| |
| ****************************************** |
| *** RELEASE RESTRICTED TO PSA MEMBERS! *** |
| ****************************************** |
| |
| |
| What's new in this release? |
| --------------------------- |
| |
| Too much has changed to list it all here. There's a loooong list of |
| changes in Misc/NEWS. This file is now *complete*: it has all changes |
| made since 1.4 (all changes worth mentioning, anyway). The complete |
| list of changes since 1.5a4 is presented at the end of the file. (It |
| could still use a better organization. Want to volunteer to add |
| better structor or convert it to HTML?) |
| |
| - There's support in the readline module to change bindings and |
| write your own command completer in Python. An example completer is |
| in rlcompleter.py. |
| |
| - The new re module is here. It is based on Philip Hazel's pcre |
| code; the Python interfaces were put together by Andrew Kuchling. |
| The regex module is declared obsolete. (The previous re |
| implementation, obsolete though it is, is still available as |
| re1.py, as a keepsake.) |
| |
| - All standard exceptions and most exceptions defined in standard |
| extension modules are now classes. Use python -X to revert back to |
| string exceptions. See |
| http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/stdexceptions.html |
| for more info. |
| |
| - Sequence assignments no longer require exact matching of the type |
| of sequence on the left- and right-hand side. For example |
| (a, b, c) = [1, 2, 3] |
| is now legal. (The lengths must still match exactly.) |
| |
| - dict.get(key, default) returns dict[key] if it exists, and default |
| otherwise; default defaults to None. |
| |
| - Class objects now have a __module__ attribute giving the module |
| name in which they were defined. |
| |
| - There is now built-in support for importing hierarchical module |
| names (e.g. "import spam.ham.eggs"); ni is declared obsolete. Note |
| that the built-in package support is somewhat simpler (no __ and |
| __domain__) and differs in one crucial aspect: __init__.py is loaded |
| in the package's namespace instead of as a submodule. See |
| http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/packages.html |
| for more info. |
| |
| - A site can append items to the end of the default sys.path by |
| placing directory names in files named *.pth in either |
| $prefix/lib/site-python/ or $prefix/lib/python1.5/site-packages/. |
| This is implemented in the module site.py which is now loaded by |
| default at the end of initialization; use python -S to skip this. |
| See |
| http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/packages.html |
| for more info. |
| |
| Other important changes, if this is the first release you see since |
| 1.4: |
| |
| - It's much faster (almost twice for pystone.py -- see |
| Tools/scripts.) |
| |
| - There's an assert statement. |
| |
| - In support of the re module, a new form of string literals is |
| introduced, "raw strings": e.g. r"\n" is equal to "\\n". |
| |
| - Comparisons can now raise exceptions. |
| |
| - New dictionary methods: .clear(), .update(), .copy(). |
| |
| - It's much smarter about the initial value for sys.path; you can |
| control it easier using $PYTHONHOME (see the usage message, e.g. try |
| ``python -h''). In most situations, the interpreter can be |
| installed at an arbitrary location without having to recompile. |
| |
| - The infamous killer joke, ehh, metaclass support, is now |
| available. See Demo/metaclasses/ for more info. |
| |
| - The build process now builds a single library (libpython1.5.a) |
| which contains everything except for the main() entry point. This |
| makes life much easier for applications that embed Python. |
| |
| - Much better support for embedding, including threads, multiple |
| interpreters(!), uninitialization, and access to the global |
| interpreter lock. |
| |
| - There's a -O option that removes SET_LINENO instructions, assert |
| statements and code prefixed with ``if __debug__: ...''. (It still |
| only makes a few percent difference, so don't get all worked up |
| about this.) |
| |
| - The Grand Renaming is completed: all linker-visible symbols |
| defined by Python now have a "Py" or "_Py" prefix, and the same is |
| true for most macros and typedefs. |
| |
| - New regression test harness tests more. |
| |
| |
| What is Python anyway? |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language, and is |
| often compared to Tcl, Perl, Java or Scheme. To find out more, point |
| your browser to http://www.python.org/. |
| |
| |
| A modest plug |
| ------------- |
| |
| ************************************************************************ |
| * Without your support, I won't be able to continue to work on Python! * |
| ************************************************************************ |
| |
| If you use Python, please consider joining the Python Software |
| Activity (PSA). See http://www.python.org/psa/. |
| |
| Organizations that make heavy use of Python are especially encouraged |
| to become corporate members! |
| |
| |
| How do I learn Python? |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| The official tutorial is still a good place to start (in the Doc |
| directory as tut.tex; and http://www.python.org/doc/tut/tut.html). |
| Aaron Watters wrote a second tutorial, that may be more accessible for |
| some: http://www.wcmh.com/uworld/archives/95/tutorial/005.html. Both |
| tutorials (as well as most other sources) assume that you already know |
| how to program -- if you'd like to write "Python for Dummies", I know |
| a publisher who would like to talk to you... |
| |
| There are now also several books on Python. While these are still |
| based on Python 1.3 or 1.4, the information in them is still 99% |
| correct. The first two books, both first published in October 1996 |
| and both including a CD-ROM, form excellent companions to each other: |
| |
| Internet Programming with Python |
| by Aaron Watters, Guido van Rossum, and James Ahlstrom |
| MIS Press/Henry Holt publishers |
| ISBN: 1-55851-484-8 |
| |
| Programming Python |
| by Mark Lutz |
| O'Reilly & Associates |
| ISBN: 1-56592-197-6 |
| |
| If you can read German, try: |
| |
| Das Python-Buch |
| by Martin von Loewis and Nils Fischbeck |
| Addison-Wesley-Longman, 1997 |
| ISBN: 3-8273-1110-1 |
| |
| |
| If you don't read instructions |
| ------------------------------ |
| |
| Congratulations on getting this far. :-) |
| |
| To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the |
| current directory and when it finishes, type "make". The section |
| Build Instructions below is still recommended reading. :-) |
| |
| |
| Copyright issues |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the full copyright |
| notice at the end of this file. |
| |
| The Python distribution is *not* affected by the GNU Public Licence |
| (GPL). There are interfaces to some GNU code but these are entirely |
| optional and no GNU code is distributed with Python. For all these |
| packages, GPL-free public domain versions also exist. |
| |
| |
| Build instructions |
| ================== |
| |
| Before you can build Python, you must first configure it. |
| Fortunately, the configuration and build process has been streamlined |
| for most Unix installations, so all you have to do is type a few |
| commands, optionally edit one file, and sit back. There are some |
| platforms where things are not quite as smooth; see the platform |
| specific notes below. If you want to build for multiple platforms |
| sharing the same source tree, see the section on VPATH below. |
| |
| You start by running the script "./configure", which figures out your |
| system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (It takes a |
| minute or two -- please be patient!) When it's done, you are ready to |
| run make. You may want to pass options to the configure script -- see |
| the section below on configuration options and variables. |
| |
| To build Python, you normally type "make" in the toplevel directory. |
| This will recursively run make in each of the subdirectories Parser, |
| Objects, Python and Modules, creating a library file in each one. The |
| executable of the interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory and |
| moved up here when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also |
| chdir into each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually (do |
| the Modules subdirectory last!). |
| |
| Once you have built an interpreter, see the subsections below on |
| testing, configuring additional modules, and installation. If you run |
| in trouble, see the next section. |
| |
| |
| Troubleshooting |
| --------------- |
| |
| See also the platform specific notes in the next section. |
| |
| If recursive makes fail, try invoking make as "make MAKE=make". |
| |
| If you run into other trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ |
| (http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/cgi-bin/faqw.py or |
| http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html) for hints on what can go wrong, |
| and how to fix it. |
| |
| If you rerun the configure script with different options, remove all |
| object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe it or |
| not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable |
| problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report! |
| |
| If the configure script fails or doesn't seem to find things that |
| should be there, inspect the config.log file. When you fix a |
| configure problem, be sure to remove config.cache! |
| |
| If you get a warning for every file about the -Olimit option being no |
| longer supported, you can ignore it. There's no foolproof way to know |
| whether this option is needed; all I can do is test whether it is |
| accepted without error. On some systems, e.g. older SGI compilers, it |
| is essential for performance (specifically when compiling ceval.c, |
| which has more basic blocks than the default limit of 1000). If the |
| warning bothers you, edit the Makefile to remove "-Olimit 1500" from |
| the OPT variable. |
| |
| |
| Platform specific notes |
| ----------------------- |
| |
| (Some of these may no longer apply. If you find you can build Python |
| on these platforms without the special directions mentioned here, let |
| me know so I can remove them!) |
| |
| 64-bit platforms: The modules audioop, imageop and rgbimg don't work. |
| Don't try to enable them in the Modules/Setup file. They |
| contain code that is quite wordsize sensitive. (If you have a |
| fix, let me know!) |
| |
| Solaris: When using Sun's C compiler with threads, at least on Solaris |
| 2.5.1, you need to add the "-mt" compiler option (the simplest |
| way is probably to specify the compiler with this option as |
| the "CC" environment variable when running the configure |
| script). |
| |
| Linux: On Linux version 1.x, once you've built Python, use it to run |
| the regen script in the Lib/linux1 directory. Apparently |
| the files as distributed don't match the system headers on |
| some Linux versions. (The "h2py" command refers to |
| Tools/scripts/h2py.py.) The modules distributed for Linux 2.x |
| should be okay. Shared library support now works by default |
| on ELF-based x86 Linux systems. (Note: when you change the |
| status of a module from static to shared, you must remove its |
| .o file or do a "make clean".) |
| |
| DEC Unix: When enabling threads, use --with-dec-threads, not |
| --with-thread. |
| |
| AIX: A complete overhaul of the shared library support is now in |
| place. To enable it, uncomment the LINKCC line in the Setup |
| file. See Misc/AIX-NOTES for some notes on how it's done. |
| |
| WARNING! In some versions of AIX, you get errors about |
| Invalid Indent when running the Python test set. This appears |
| to be a bug in the AIX compiler. Rebuild Parser/tokenizer.c |
| using OPT="" or OPT=-g, or use gcc. According to the latest |
| reports, it seems this compiler bug is still present in 4.2.1. |
| |
| Minix: When using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"! |
| |
| SCO: 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the |
| defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken. |
| Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard it's |
| conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined. |
| |
| 2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt |
| stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS |
| needed be set to: |
| |
| LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i' |
| |
| 3) According to at least one report, the above apply only to |
| SCO 3 -- Python builds out of the box on SCO 5. |
| |
| SunOS: On SunOS 4.1.x, when using the SunPro C compiler, you may want |
| to use the '-Xa' option instead of '-Xc', to enable some |
| needed non-ANSI Sunisms. |
| |
| NeXT: To build fat binaries, use the --with-next-archs switch |
| described below. |
| |
| QNX: Edit the top level Makefile to use the following compile options: |
| OPT = -Ox -Q -U_M_IX86 -U__WATCOMC__ |
| Edit the Makefile in the Modules directory to read: |
| LDFLAGS = -N 48k |
| |
| Cray T3E: Konrad Hinsen writes: |
| 1) Don't use gcc. It compiles Python/graminit.c into something that |
| the Cray assembler doesn't like. Cray's cc seems to work fine. |
| 2) Uncomment modules md5 (won't compile) and audioop (will crash |
| the interpreter during the test suite). |
| If you run the test suite, two tests will fail (rotate and binascii), |
| but these are not the modules you'd expect to need on a Cray. |
| |
| SGI: SGI's standard "make" utility (/bin/make or /usr/bin/make) |
| does not check whether a command actually changed the file it |
| is supposed to build. This means that whenever you say "make" |
| it will redo the link step. The remedy is to use SGI's much |
| smarter "smake " utility (/usr/sbin/smake), or GNU make. If |
| you set the first line of the Makefile to #!/usr/sbin/smake |
| smake will be invoked by make (likewise for GNU make). |
| |
| |
| Configuring additional built-in modules |
| --------------------------------------- |
| |
| You can configure the interpreter to contain fewer or more built-in |
| modules by editing the file Modules/Setup. This file is initially |
| copied (when the toplevel Makefile makes Modules/Makefile for the |
| first time) from Setup.in; if it does not exist yet, make a copy |
| yourself. Never edit Setup.in -- always edit Setup. Read the |
| comments in the file for information on what kind of edits you can |
| make. When you have edited Setup, Makefile and config.c in Modules |
| will automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the |
| toplevel directory. (When working inside the Modules directory, use |
| "make Makefile; make".) |
| |
| The default collection of modules should build on any Unix system, but |
| many optional modules should work on all modern Unices (e.g. try dbm, |
| nis, termios, timing, syslog, curses, new, soundex, parser). Often |
| the quickest way to determine whether a particular module works or not |
| is to see if it will build: enable it in Setup, then if you get |
| compilation or link errors, disable it -- you're missing support. |
| |
| On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific |
| system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. |
| |
| For SunOS and Solaris, enable module "sunaudiodev" to support the |
| audio device. |
| |
| In addition to the file Setup, you can also edit the file Setup.local. |
| (the makesetup script processes both). You may find it more |
| convenient to edit Setup.local and leave Setup alone. Then, when |
| installing a new Python version, you can copy your old Setup.local |
| file. |
| |
| |
| Setting the optimization/debugging options |
| ------------------------------------------ |
| |
| If you want or need to change the optimization/debugging options for |
| the C compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make |
| command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python |
| on most platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the |
| environment when the configure script is run overrides this default |
| (likewise for CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base |
| set of libraries to link with). |
| |
| |
| Testing |
| ------- |
| |
| To test the interpreter that you have just built, type "make test". |
| This runs the test set twice (once with no compiled files, once with |
| the compiled files left by the previous test run). The test set |
| produces some output. You can generally ignore the messages about |
| skipped tests due to an optional feature that can't be imported (if |
| you want to test those modules, edit Modules/Setup to configure them). |
| If a messages is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core |
| dump is produced, something's wrong. On some systems, test_strftime |
| fails due to a non-standard implementation of strftime() in the C |
| library. This can be ignored (or you can complain to your vendor). |
| |
| IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report, |
| *don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the |
| test that fails manually, as follows: |
| |
| python ../Lib/test/test_whatever.py |
| |
| (substituting the top of the source tree for .. if you built in a |
| different directory). This runs the test in verbose mode. |
| |
| |
| Installing |
| ---------- |
| |
| Installing Python was never this easy! |
| |
| To install the Python binary, library modules, shared library modules |
| (see below), include files, configuration files, and the manual page, |
| just type "make install". This will install all platform-independent |
| files in subdirectories the directory given with the --prefix option |
| to configure or the 'prefix' Make variable (default /usr/local), and |
| all binary and other platform-specific files in subdirectories if the |
| directory given by --exec-prefix or the 'exec_prefix' Make variable |
| (defaults to the --prefix directory). All subdirectories created will |
| have Python's version number in their name, e.g. the library modules |
| are installed in "/usr/local/lib/python1.5/" by default. The Python |
| binary is installed as "python1.5" and a hard link named "python" is |
| created. The only file not installed with a version number in its |
| name is the manual page, installed as "/usr/local/man/man1/python.1" |
| by default. |
| |
| If you have a previous installation of a pre-1.5 Python that you don't |
| want to replace yet, use "make altinstall". This installs the same |
| set of files as "make install" except it doesn't create the hard link |
| to "python1.5" named "python" and it doesn't install the manual page |
| at all. |
| |
| The only thing you may have to install manually is the Python mode for |
| Emacs. (But then again, more recent versions of Emacs may already |
| have it!) This is the file Misc/python-mode.el; follow the |
| instructions that came with Emacs for installation of site specific |
| files. |
| |
| |
| Configuration options and variables |
| ----------------------------------- |
| |
| Some special cases are handled by passing options to the configure |
| script. |
| |
| WARNING: if you rerun the configure script with different options, you |
| must run "make clean" before rebuilding. Exceptions to this rule: |
| after changing --prefix or --exec-prefix, all you need to do is remove |
| Modules/getpath.o. |
| |
| --with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if |
| it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is |
| installed but broken on your platform, pass the option |
| --without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the |
| name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the |
| advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is |
| remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck |
| option. |
| |
| --prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the |
| Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib}, |
| you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter |
| binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the |
| library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass |
| --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the |
| installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the |
| interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also |
| affects the default module search path (sys.path), when |
| Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option |
| prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the |
| prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient |
| than re-running the configure script if you change your mind |
| about the install prefix... |
| |
| --with-readline: This option is no longer supported. To use GNU |
| readline, enable module "readline" in the Modules/Setup file. |
| |
| --with-thread: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple threads. |
| To enable this, pass --with-thread. (--with-threads is an |
| alias.) If the library required for threads lives in a |
| peculiar place, you can use --with-thread=DIRECTORY. NOTE: |
| you must also enable the thread module by uncommenting it in |
| the Modules/Setup file. (Threads aren't enabled automatically |
| because there are run-time penalties when support for them is |
| compiled in even if you don't use them.) IMPORTANT: run "make |
| clean" after changing (either enabling or disabling) this |
| option! Note: for DEC Unix use --with-dec-threads instead. |
| |
| --with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is |
| supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is |
| ftp'able from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z. |
| This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl |
| library!) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY |
| is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on |
| IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style |
| shared libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated. |
| |
| --with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported |
| on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent |
| Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a |
| combination of the GNU dynamic loading package |
| (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an |
| emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation |
| can be found at |
| ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To |
| enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the |
| configure passing it the option |
| --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is |
| the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and |
| DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library. |
| (Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic |
| linking using shared libraries.) Support for this feature is |
| deprecated. |
| |
| --with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative |
| versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library |
| (default the empty string) using the options |
| --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g. |
| if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler |
| to use the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s. |
| These libraries are passed after all other libraries, the C |
| library last. |
| |
| --with-next-archs='arch1 arch2': Under NEXTSTEP, this will build |
| all compiled binaries with the architectures listed. Includes |
| correctly setting the target architecture specific resource |
| directory. (This option is not supported on other platforms.) |
| |
| --with-libs='libs': Add 'libs' to the LIBS that the python |
| linked against. |
| |
| |
| Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature) |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it |
| usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each |
| architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the |
| VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each |
| architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the |
| appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the |
| necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles |
| contain a line VPATH=... which points to directory containing the |
| actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake -J1" instead of "make" if |
| you use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.) |
| |
| For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python |
| in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel |
| directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python): |
| |
| $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python |
| $ cd /usr/tmp/python |
| $ ~guido/src/python/configure |
| [...] |
| $ make |
| [...] |
| $ |
| |
| Note that Modules/Makefile copies the original Setup file to the build |
| directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can |
| edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this |
| reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked |
| automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy |
| of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The |
| makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be |
| fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it |
| doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local; |
| however this assumes that you only need to add modules.) |
| |
| |
| Building on non-UNIX systems |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| Building Python for a PC is now a piece of cake! |
| |
| Enter the directory "PC" and read the file "readme.txt". Most popular |
| non-Unix PC platforms and compilers are supported (Unix ports to the |
| PC such as Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris-x86 of course use the standard |
| Unix build instructions). |
| |
| For the Mac, a separate source distribution will be made available, |
| for use with the CodeWarrior compiler. If you are interested in Mac |
| development, join the PythonMac Special Interest Group |
| (http://www.python.org/sigs/pythonmac-sig/, or send email to |
| pythonmac-sig-request@python.org). |
| |
| Of course, there are also binary distributions available for these |
| platforms -- see http://www.python.org/python/. |
| |
| To port Python to a new non-UNIX system, you will have to fake the |
| effect of running the configure script manually (for Mac and PC, this |
| has already been done for you). A good start is to copy the file |
| config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual |
| configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as |
| 1 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone |
| otherwise; however RETSIGTYPE must always be defined, either as int or |
| as void, and the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant of |
| int if they need to be defined at all. |
| |
| |
| |
| Miscellaneous issues |
| ==================== |
| |
| Documentation |
| ------------- |
| |
| All documentation is provided in the subdirectory Doc in the form of |
| LaTeX files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut), |
| Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending (ext). |
| Especially the Library Reference is of immense value since much of |
| Python's power (including the built-in data types and functions!) is |
| described here. |
| |
| To print the documentation from the LaTeX files, chdir into the Doc |
| subdirectory, type "make" (let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and |
| send the four resulting PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and |
| ext.ps) to the printer. See the README file there. If you don't have |
| LaTeX, you can ftp the PostScript files from the ftp archives (see |
| below). |
| |
| All documentation is also available on-line via the Python web site |
| (http://www.python.org/, see below). It can also be downloaded |
| separately from the ftp archives (see below) in Emacs INFO, HTML or |
| PostScript form -- see the web site or the FAQ |
| (http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/cgi-bin/faqw.py or |
| http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html) for more info. |
| |
| |
| Emacs mode |
| ---------- |
| |
| There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file |
| Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by the famous Tim Peters, it |
| is now maintained by the equally famous Barry Warsaw |
| <bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us>. The latest version is online at |
| ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/emacs/python-mode.el. As you might expect of |
| Barry (and even if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about :-), |
| a configuration file for his cc-mode.el which selects the style used |
| throughout most Python C source files is also provided; see the file |
| Misc/ccpy-style.el. |
| |
| |
| Web site |
| -------- |
| |
| Python's own web site has URL http://www.python.org/. Come visit us! |
| There are a number of mirrors, listed on the home page -- try a mirror |
| that's close you you. |
| |
| |
| Ftp site |
| -------- |
| |
| Python's own ftp site is ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/. There are |
| numerous mirrors; see http://www.python.org/python/Mirrors.html for a |
| list of mirror sites. |
| |
| |
| Newsgroup and mailing list |
| -------------------------- |
| |
| There are a newsgroup and a mailing list devoted to Python. The |
| newsgroup, comp.lang.python, contains exactly the same messages as the |
| mailing list (though not always in the same order, due to the |
| mysterious nature of the Usenet news distribution algorithm). To |
| subscribe to the mailing list, send mail containing your real name and |
| e-mail address to "python-list-request@cwi.nl". Use the same address |
| if you want to unsibscribed. (A real person reads these messages, so |
| no LISTPROC or Majordomo commands, please, and please be patient -- |
| normal turn-around time is about one working day.) |
| |
| The Python web site contains a search form that lets you search the |
| newsgroup archives (and the web site itself). Click on the "search" |
| link in the banner menu on any page of http://www.python.org/. |
| |
| |
| Bug reports |
| ----------- |
| |
| Bugs are best reported to the comp.lang.python newsgroup or the Python |
| mailing list -- see the section "Newsgroup and mailing list" above. |
| Before posting, check the newsgroup archives (see above) to see if |
| your bug has already been reported! If you don't want to go public, |
| send them to me <guido@python.org>. |
| |
| |
| Questions |
| --------- |
| |
| For help, if you can't find it in the manuals or on the web site, it's |
| best to post to the comp.lang.python or the Python mailing list (see |
| above). If you specifically don't want to involve the newsgroup or |
| mailing list, send questions to <python-help@python.org> (a group of |
| volunteers which does *not* include me). Because of my work and email |
| volume, I'm often be slow in answering questions sent to me directly; |
| I prefer to answer questions posted to the newsgroup. |
| |
| |
| The Tk interface |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Tk (the user interface component of John Ousterhout's Tcl language) is |
| also usable from Python. Since this requires that you first build and |
| install Tcl/Tk, the Tk interface is not enabled by default. Python |
| supports all Tcl/Tk versions from version 7.5/4.1 through 8.0 (and it |
| is expected that it will also work with newer versions). Tcl/Tk |
| 7.4/4.0 is no longer supported. |
| |
| See http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/ for more info on where to get |
| Tcl/Tk. Also http://sunscript.sun.com/. |
| |
| To enable the Python/Tk interface, once you've built and installed |
| Tcl/Tk, all you need to do is edit two lines in Modules/Setup; search |
| for the string "_tkinter". Uncomment one (normally the first) of the |
| lines beginning with "#_tkinter" and un-comment the line beginning |
| with "#TKPATH". If you have installed Tcl/Tk or X11 in unusual |
| places, you will have to edit the first line to fix or add -I and -L |
| options. See the Build Instructions above for more details. |
| |
| There is little documentation on how to use Tkinter; however most of |
| the Tk manual pages apply quite straightforwardly. Begin with |
| fetching the "Tk Lifesaver" document, |
| e.g. ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/doc/tkinter-doc.tar.gz (a gzipped |
| tar file containing a PostScript file) or the on-line version |
| http://www.python.org/doc/life-preserver/index.html. Reading the |
| Tkinter.py source will reveal most details on how Tkinter calls are |
| translated into Tcl code. |
| |
| A more recent introduction to Tkinter programming, by Fredrik Lundh, |
| is at http://www.pythonware.com/library/tkinter/introduction/index.htm. |
| |
| There are demos in the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories |
| guido, matt and www (the matt and guido subdirectories have been |
| overhauled to use more recent Tkinter coding conventions). |
| |
| Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which |
| lives in Lib/tkinter/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "_tkinter" |
| (lower case t and leading underscore) which lives in |
| Modules/_tkinter.c. Demos and normal Tk applications only import the |
| Python Tkinter module -- only the latter uses the C _tkinter module |
| directly. In order to find the C _tkinter module, it must be compiled |
| and linked into the Python interpreter -- the _tkinter line in the |
| Setup file does this. In order to find the Python Tkinter module, |
| sys.path must be set correctly -- the TKPATH assignment in the Setup |
| file takes care of this, but only if you install Python properly |
| ("make install libinstall"). (You can also use dynamic loading for |
| the C _tkinter module, in which case you must manually fix up sys.path |
| or set $PYTHONPATH for the Python Tkinter module.) |
| |
| |
| Distribution structure |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| Most subdirectories have their own README file. Most files have |
| comments. |
| |
| Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs |
| Doc/ Documentation (LaTeX sources) |
| Grammar/ Input for the parser generator |
| Include/ Public header files |
| Lib/ Python library modules |
| Makefile.in Source from which config.status creates Makefile |
| Misc/ Miscellaneous useful files |
| Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules |
| Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types |
| PC/ PC porting files (DOS, Windows, NT, OS/2) |
| Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling |
| Python/ The "compiler" and interpreter |
| README The file you're reading now |
| Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python |
| acconfig.h Additional input for the autoheader program |
| config.h.in Source from which config.status creates config.h |
| configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output) |
| configure.in Configuration specification (GNU autoconf input) |
| install-sh Shell script used to install files |
| |
| The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by |
| the configuration and build processes: |
| |
| Makefile Build rules |
| config.cache cache of configuration variables |
| config.h Configuration header |
| config.log Log from last configure run |
| config.status Status from last run of configure script |
| libpython1.5.a The library archive |
| python The executable interpreter |
| tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs |
| |
| |
| Author's address |
| ================ |
| |
| Guido van Rossum |
| CNRI |
| 1895 Preston White Drive |
| Reston, VA 20191 |
| USA |
| |
| E-mail: guido@cnri.reston.va.us or guido@python.org |
| |
| |
| |
| Copyright notice |
| ================ |
| |
| The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it |
| as long as you don't change or remove the copyright notice: |
| |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Copyright 1991-1995 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, |
| The Netherlands. |
| |
| All Rights Reserved |
| |
| Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its |
| documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, |
| provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that |
| both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in |
| supporting documentation, and that the names of Stichting Mathematisch |
| Centrum or CWI or Corporation for National Research Initiatives or |
| CNRI not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to |
| distribution of the software without specific, written prior |
| permission. |
| |
| While CWI is the initial source for this software, a modified version |
| is made available by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives |
| (CNRI) at the Internet address ftp://ftp.python.org. |
| |
| STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM AND CNRI DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH |
| REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF |
| MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL STICHTING MATHEMATISCH |
| CENTRUM OR CNRI BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL |
| DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR |
| PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER |
| TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR |
| PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| |
| --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) |