Python Libraries

Python's standard distribution is shipped with a rich set of libraries. These libraries intend to offer flexibility to the programmers.

The libraries (also known as modules) cover many topics, such as the following:

Python core services— A group of modules, such as sys and os, that enable you to interact with what is behind the interpreter.

Network and Internet services— Python has modules for almost everything that is Internet related. You have many network client protocol implementations that handle the most used Internet services, such as HTTP and FTP. Python also provides support for parsing mark-up languages, like XML and HTML.

Regular expressions— There module is a very comprehensive choice for text manipulation because it provides Perl 5 style patterns and matching rules.

The Library Reference

The robustness of Python's library is something amazing. Many users have contributed to the development of these modules during the last few years.

Some modules were written in C and are built into the interpreter. Others are written in Python and can be loaded by using the import command.

Keep in mind that some of the interfaces may change slightly (for instance, bug fixes) with the next release. Therefore, I suggest that you visit Python's Web site once in a while, and keep yourself up-todate.

I encourage you to use this chapter in order to get a quick overview about the existing Python libraries.

After you have exhausted all the material provided by this book, check out the online Python Library Reference to see the minor details about each one of these Python module interfaces.

This introduces you to the practical side of several modules'utilization. The next pages show what main functions each module exposes, and, whenever possible, some examples are listed.

Some of the modules—such as debugger(pdb), profiler, Tkinter(the standard Python GUI API) and re—aren't deeply studied here because they are presented in detail later. Whenever this happens, the chapter number is mentioned next to the module name.

The Standard Library of Modules

This covers the latest version of the Standard Library of Modules that is available at the time of this writing. The modules are presented in the same order as they are shown in Python's official documentation. This was done to make the work of cross-referencing easier for you.

The following topics are the group names that organize the modules you will find.

  Python  Services
  String
  Miscellaneous
  Generic  Operational System
  Optional  Operational System
  Debugger
  Profiler
  Internet  Protocol and Support
  Internet  Data Handling
  Restricted  Execution
  Multimedia
  Cryptographic
  UNIX  Specific
  SGI  IRIX Specific
  Sun  OS Specific
  MS  Windows Specific
  Macintosh  Specific
  Undocumented  Modules