Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | .. _library-index: |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ############################### |
| 4 | The Python Standard Library |
| 5 | ############################### |
| 6 | |
| 7 | :Release: |version| |
| 8 | :Date: |today| |
| 9 | |
Benjamin Peterson | d7b0328 | 2008-09-13 15:58:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 10 | While :ref:`reference-index` describes the exact syntax and |
Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | semantics of the Python language, this library reference manual |
| 12 | describes the standard library that is distributed with Python. It also |
| 13 | describes some of the optional components that are commonly included |
| 14 | in Python distributions. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Python's standard library is very extensive, offering a wide range of |
| 17 | facilities as indicated by the long table of contents listed below. The |
| 18 | library contains built-in modules (written in C) that provide access to |
| 19 | system functionality such as file I/O that would otherwise be |
| 20 | inaccessible to Python programmers, as well as modules written in Python |
| 21 | that provide standardized solutions for many problems that occur in |
| 22 | everyday programming. Some of these modules are explicitly designed to |
| 23 | encourage and enhance the portability of Python programs by abstracting |
| 24 | away platform-specifics into platform-neutral APIs. |
| 25 | |
Georg Brandl | c575c90 | 2008-09-13 17:46:05 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 26 | The Python installers for the Windows platform usually includes |
Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 27 | the entire standard library and often also include many additional |
| 28 | components. For Unix-like operating systems Python is normally provided |
| 29 | as a collection of packages, so it may be necessary to use the packaging |
| 30 | tools provided with the operating system to obtain some or all of the |
| 31 | optional components. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | In addition to the standard library, there is a growing collection of |
Christian Heimes | 5e69685 | 2008-04-09 08:37:03 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | several thousand components (from individual programs and modules to |
| 35 | packages and entire application development frameworks), available from |
| 36 | the `Python Package Index <http://pypi.python.org/pypi>`_. |
Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 37 | |
| 38 | |
| 39 | .. toctree:: |
| 40 | :maxdepth: 2 |
| 41 | |
| 42 | intro.rst |
| 43 | functions.rst |
| 44 | constants.rst |
| 45 | objects.rst |
| 46 | stdtypes.rst |
| 47 | exceptions.rst |
| 48 | |
| 49 | strings.rst |
| 50 | datatypes.rst |
| 51 | numeric.rst |
| 52 | filesys.rst |
| 53 | persistence.rst |
| 54 | archiving.rst |
| 55 | fileformats.rst |
| 56 | crypto.rst |
| 57 | allos.rst |
| 58 | someos.rst |
| 59 | ipc.rst |
| 60 | netdata.rst |
| 61 | markup.rst |
| 62 | internet.rst |
| 63 | mm.rst |
| 64 | i18n.rst |
| 65 | frameworks.rst |
| 66 | tk.rst |
| 67 | development.rst |
Georg Brandl | 546e2d6 | 2007-09-12 18:04:37 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 68 | debug.rst |
Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 69 | python.rst |
| 70 | custominterp.rst |
| 71 | modules.rst |
| 72 | language.rst |
| 73 | misc.rst |
| 74 | windows.rst |
| 75 | unix.rst |
Georg Brandl | 116aa62 | 2007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 76 | undoc.rst |