file extension PY

Python

Python is often used as a scripting language for web applications, e.g. via mod_python for the Apache web server. With Web Server Gateway Interface a standard API has been developed to facilitate these applications. Web application frameworks or application servers like web2py, Zope, and Django support developers in the design and maintenance of complex applications.

Python has seen extensive use in the information security industry, including in exploit development. Python has been successfully embedded in a number of software products as a scripting language, including in finite element method software such as Abaqus, 3D animation packages such as Maya, Softimage XSI, and Blender, and 2D imaging programs like GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus, and Paint Shop Pro. ESRI is now promoting Python as the best choice for writing scripts in ArcGIS. It has even been used in several videogames.

For many operating systems, Python is a standard component; it ships with most Linux distributions, with NetBSD, and OpenBSD, and with Mac OS X. Red Hat Linux and Fedora both use the pythonic Anaconda installer. Gentoo Linux uses Python in its package management system, Portage, and the standard tool to access it, emerge. Pardus uses it for administration and during system boot.

Among the users of Python are YouTube and the original BitTorrent client. Large organizations that make use of Python include Google, Yahoo!, CERN, NASA, and ITA. Most of the Sugar software for the One Laptop Per Child XO, now developed at Sugar Labs, is written in Python.

Adobe ExtendScript

The ExtendScript Toolkit (ESTK) is a development and debugging tool for JavaScript scripts included with Adobe CS3 Suites and applications such as Bridge, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and After Effects. ESTK is a new and enhanced version that allows you to create, edit and debug ExtendScript (Adobe's JavaScript language) all with an updated user interface, a new text engine, and the ability to debug more than one script at a time.

codeEditor

The codeEditor sample in PythonCard is focused on being a simple to use Python source code editor. It is not intended to be a generic editor or replace vi(m), Emacs, etc. If you are already happy with your existing editing environment for Python source code, there is no particular reason you have to switch. codeEditor and the resourceEditor and shell will be more tightly integrated as the project progresses so that the user has a simple Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for building desktop applications without needing to use an external program for editing.

Linux

Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The kernel, at the heart of all Linux systems, is developed and released under the GNU General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone. It is this kernel that forms the base around which a Linux operating system is developed. There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel. More information on the kernel can be found at our sister site, LinuxHQ and at the official Linux Kernel Archives. The current full-featured version is 2.6 (released December 2003) and development continues.

Apart from the fact that it's freely distributed, Linux's functionality, adaptability and robustness, has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other giants of the computing world have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development. Well into its second decade of existence, Linux has been adopted worldwide primarily as a server platform. Its use as a home and office desktop operating system is also on the rise. The operating system can also be incorporated directly into microchips in a process called "embedding" and is increasingly being used this way in appliances and devices.

Throughout most of the 1990's, tech pundits, largely unaware of Linux's potential, dismissed it as a computer hobbyist project, unsuitable for the general public's computing needs. Through the efforts of developers of desktop management systems such as KDE and GNOME, office suite project OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla web browser project, to name only a few, there are now a wide range of applications that run on Linux and it can be used by anyone regardless of his/her knowledge of computers. Those curious to see the capabilities of Linux can download a live CD version called Knoppix . It comes with everything you might need to carry out day-to-day tasks on the computer and it needs no installation. It will run from a CD in a computer capable of booting from the CD drive. Those choosing to continue using Linux can find a variety of versions or "distributions" of Linux that are easy to install, configure and use. Information on these products is available in our distribution section and can be found by selecting the mainstream/general public category.