===============================
About Python Module of the Week
===============================
PyMOTW is a series of blog posts written by `Doug Hellmann
<http://www.doughellmann.com/>`_. It was started as a way to build
the habit of writing something on a regular basis. The focus of the
series is building a set of example code for the modules in the
`Python <http://www.python.org/>`_ standard library.
See the project home page at http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/ for
updates and the latest release. Source code is available from
http://bitbucket.org/dhellmann/pymotw/.
Complete documentation for the standard library can be found on the
Python web site at http://docs.python.org/library/.
Tools
=====
The source text for PyMOTW is `reStructuredText
<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/>`_ and the HTML and PDF output are
created using `Sphinx <http://sphinx.pocoo.org/>`_.
Subscribe
=========
As new articles are written, they are posted to my blog
(http://blog.doughellmann.com/). Updates are available by RSS from
http://feeds.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW and `email
<http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=PyMOTW&loc=en_US>`_.
.. _motw-cli:
The motw Command Line Interface
===============================
PyMOTW includes a command line program, ``motw``, to make it even
easier to access the examples while you are developing. Simply run
``motw module`` to open the local copy of the HTML text for the named
module. There are also options to view the articles in different
formats (see the ``-h`` output for details).
Usage: ``motw [options] <module_name>``
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-t, --text Print plain-text version of help to stdout
-w, --web Open HTML version of help from web
--html Open HTML version of help from installed file
.. _motw-interactive:
Using PyMOTW with the Interactive Interpreter
=============================================
PyMOTW articles are at your fingertips while you're working with the
Python interactive interpreter. Importing ``PyMOTW`` adds the
function ``motw()`` to the ``__builtins__`` namespace. Run
``motw(module)`` to see the help for an imported module. Enclose the
name in quotes for a module that you haven't already imported.
::
$ python
Python 2.6.2 (r262:71600, Apr 16 2009, 09:17:39)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5250)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import PyMOTW
>>> motw('atexit')
atexit -- Call functions when a program is closing down
*******************************************************
...
.. _translations:
Translations and Other Versions
===============================
`Chinese <http://www.vbarter.cn/pymotw/>`_
Junjie Cai (蔡俊杰) and Yan Sheng (盛艳) have started a google code
project called PyMOTWCN (http://code.google.com/p/pymotwcn/) and
posted the completed translations at http://www.vbarter.cn/pymotw/.
`German <http://schoenian-online.de/pymotw.html>`_
Ralf Schönian is translating PyMOTW into German, following an
alphabetical order. The results are available on his web site,
http://schoenian-online.de/pymotw.html. Ralf is an active member of
the `pyCologne
<http://wiki.python.de/User_Group_K%C3%B6ln?action=show&redirect=pyCologne>`_
user group in Germany and author of pyVoc, the open source
English/German vocabulary trainer (http://code.google.com/p/pyvoc/).
`Italian <http://robyp.x10hosting.com/>`_
Roberto Pauletto is working on an Italian translation at
http://robyp.x10hosting.com/. Roberto creates Windows applications
with C# by day, and tinkers with Linux and Python at home. He has
recently moved to Python from Perl for all of his
system-administration scripting.
`Spanish <http://denklab.org/articles/category/pymotw/>`_
`Ernesto Rico Schmidt <http://denklab.org/>`_ provides a Spanish
translation that follows the English version posts. Ernesto is in
Bolivia, and is translating these examples as a way to contribute to
the members of the `Bolivian Free Software
<http://www.softwarelibre.org.bo/>`_ community who use Python. The
full list of articles available in Spanish can be found at
http://denklab.org/articles/category/pymotw/, and there is an `RSS
feed <http://denklab.org/feeds/articles/category/pymotw/>`_.
`Japanese <http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW-ja/>`_
`Tetsuya Morimoto <http://d.hatena.ne.jp/t2y-1979/>`_ is creating a
Japanese translation. Tetsuya has used Python for 1.5 years. He has
as experience at a Linux Distributor using Python with yum,
anaconda, and rpm-tools while building RPM packages. Now, he uses it
to make useful tools for himself, and is interested in application
frameworks such as Django, mercurial and wxPython. Tetsuya is a
member of `Python Japan User's Group <http://www.python.jp/Zope/>`_
and `Python Code Reading
<http://groups.google.co.jp/group/python-code-reading>`_. The home
page for his translation is http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW-ja/.
Compendiums
-----------
Gerard Flanagan is working on a "Python compendium" called `The Hazel
Tree <http://www.thehazeltree.org/>`_. He is converting a collection
of old and new of Python-related reference material into
reStructuredText and then building a single searchable repository from
the results. I am very pleased to have PyMOTW included with works
from authors like Mark Pilgrim, Fredrik Lundh, Andrew Kuchling, and a
growing list of others.
Other Contributors
==================
Thank you to John Benediktsson for the original HTML-to-reST
conversion.
.. include:: copyright.rst