Python

Very cool Computer Programming language: http://www.python.org/

cross-platform, Open Source
managed, interpreted, Scripting Language, Dynamic Language : no memory management, builds, etc.
easy to read (uses indents, no stupid punctuation)

Packaging, virtual environments, etc.: use (2023-03-27) BiteCode on Python installation and packaging esp on Mac

RemoteWikiURL:http://wiki.python.org/moin/

Bill De Hora in 2004 on the ubiquity of Python and the passing of objections

Where is Python used?

Biggest Python Open Source apps (defined as GitHub repositories with the most forks)

Django
Flask
Sci Kit (SciPy)
Ansible (Configuration Management)
Scra Py (Web Crawler)
Tornado
Requests (easier-to-use layer on top of httplib/urllib)
Odoo/Open Erp (includes Odoo Project Management Software which includes Kanban)
Package Control default channel
Zen Deck API wrapper
RackSpace Cloud wrapper
Go Agent a gae proxy forked from gappproxy/wallproxy
CMS plugin for Django
Dev Ramp Up challenge
BitCoin API
(below are some random choices, from slightly different GitHub query)
httpie CLI HTTP client; user-friendly cURL replacement
IPython

Learning (or Learning Programming) materials:

http://linkmingle.com/list/List-of-Free-Online-Python-Books-freebooksandarticles
Python:PythonBooks has some interesting fringe titles
links to tutorials on various topics http://www.awaretek.com/tutorials.html
Lots of online docs available at http://www.webdocs.org/
chapters online from EffBot's guide to the standard library. Plus various targeted guides
official PEP-8 style guide http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html
- David Goodger recommendations
old Yahoo internal document on Python Coding Standards (by Dave Jeske of eGroups)
- other guidelines and idioms
Jeffrey P Shell recommends some Source Code worth reading.
some recommend Peter Norvig's Sudoku solver
InfrequentlyAnsweredQuestions by Peter Norvig - lots of bits on dictionaries, types, etc.
http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/ course materials
http://www.diveintopython.org/ Dive Into Python by Mark Pilgrim
http://www.byteofpython.info/ Byte Of Python
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ How to Think like a Computer Scientist
How to think like a Pythonista
approaches to Large Scale Python app development: <http://www.egenix.com/files/python/Euro Python 2004-Developing-large-scale-applications-in-Python.pdf>
PyProtocols give Wouldn't it be nice if you could just declare "I want this object to have this behavior" and magically convert whatever value you have, to the type you need? PyProtocols lets you do just that, cleanly, quickly, and robustly - even with built-in types or other people's classes. (works with Zope)
- David Mertz article on PyProtocols (which is part of PEAK - Python Enterprise Application Kit, which is a child of Trans Warp, all by Phillip J Eby)
Ian Bicking in 2007 on raising Exceptions
Intermediate Python free ebook 2015 - http://pythontips.com/2015/08/17/intermediate-python-released/
more advanced structures/patterns to learn: IterTools, lambda, etc.

FSQuery library by Phil Jones to query filesystem and batch-process matches, etc.

Provisioning/deployment tools (2011): http://agiletesting.blogspot.com/2011/03/deployment-and-hosting-open-space-at.html

also: I had to leave towards the end of the meeting, when people started to discuss the hosting aspect, so I don't have a lot to add here -- but it is interesting to me to see quite a few companies that have Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings for Python hosting: Django Zoom, ep.io, Gondor (ep.io can host any WSGI application, while the Django Zoom and Gondor are focused on Django).

From 2004: Since my focus is web/net development, I'm working with Zope mainly right now.

IDE-s (see also Folding Text Editor On Mac)

Active State IDLE editor has some value - now also for MacOs X?
Active State Kom Odo: if you're doing "commercial" work you're supposed to buy the Professional version for $300 instead of the Personal $30 version
Dr Python IDE http://drpython.sourceforge.net/ (uses WxPython)
SPE http://spe.pycs.net/ (uses WxPython)
David Mertz Dec'03 article on JEdit, IDLE, LEO
2009 Stack Overflow thread
2005 discussion thread

debugging:

Python Win
pdb/ddd, which does run on MsWindows with cygwin, etc.
pdb
- insert line where you want to trigger stop: import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
- type s or n for step or next - (The difference between next and step is that step stops inside a called function, while next executes called functions at (nearly) full speed, only stopping at the next line in the current function.)
- type c to continue (forever, or until next break)
- ooh, you can jump into IPython by using ipdb.