The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python!¶

Welcome to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python. DON’T PANIC!

This guide is currently under heavy development, and is mostly a skeleton at the moment. If you’d like to help, fork us on GitHub!

This opinionated guide exists to provide both novice and expert Python developers a best-practice handbook to the installation, configuration, and usage of Python on a daily basis.

Getting Started¶

This part of the guide focuses on setting up your Python environment.

Picking an Interpreter
- 2.x vs 3.x
- Which Python to Support?
- Implementations

Properly Install Python

Installing Python on Mac OS X

Installing Python on Windows

Installing Python on Linux

Writing Great Code¶

This part of the guide focuses on best practices for writing Python code.

Structuring Your Project
- Structure is Key
- Modules
- Packages
- Object-oriented programming
- Decorators
- Dynamic typing
- Mutable and immutable types
- Vendorizing Dependencies
- Runners
- Further Reading
Code Style
- General concepts
- Idioms
- Zen of Python
- PEP 8
- Conventions
Documentation
- Project Documentation
- Project Publication
- Code Documentation Advice
- Other Tools
Testing Your Code
- The Basics
- Tools
Choosing a License

Scenario Guide¶

This part of the guide focuses on tool and module advice based on different scenarios.

Network Applications
- HTTP
- Distributed Systems
Web Applications
- Context
- Frameworks
- Web Servers
- WSGI Servers
- Server Best Practices
- Hosting
- Templating
Command Line Applications
- Clint
GUI Applications
- Qt
- Cocoa
- wxPython
- Gtk
- Tk
- Kivy
Databases
- DB-API
- SQLAlchemy
- Django ORM
Systems Administration
- Fabric
- Salt
- Chef
- Puppet
- Blueprint
- Buildout
Continuous Integration
- Why?
- Jenkins
- Buildbot
- Mule?
- Tox
- Travis-CI
Speed
- Context
- C Extentions
- Threading
Scientific Applications
- Context
- Libraries
- Resources
Image Manipulation
- Python Imaging Library
XML parsing
- untangle

Shipping Great Code¶

This part of the guide focuses on deploying your Python code.

Packaging Your Code
- For Python Developers
- For Linux Distributions
Freezing Your Code
- Comparison
- Windows
- OSX
- Linux

Development Environment¶

Your Development Environment
- Text Editors
- IDEs
- Interpreter Tools
- Other Tools
Virtual Environments
- virtualenv
- virtualenvwrapper
- autoenv

Additional Notes¶

This part of the guide, which is mostly prose, begins with some background information about Python, then focuses on next steps.

Introduction
- About This Guide
The Community
- BDFL
- Python Software Foundation
- PEPs
- Python Conferences
- Python User Groups
Learning Python
- Beginner
- Advanced
- References
Documentation
- Official Documentation
- Read the Docs
News
- Planet Python
- /r/python
- Python Weekly

Contibution notes and legal information are here (for those interested).

Contribute
- Style Guide
- Todo List
License
The Guide Style Guide
- Relevancy
- Headings
- Prose
- Code Examples
- Externally Linking
- Linking to Sections in The Guide
- Notes and Warnings
- TODOs

Python Guide.

This opinionated guide exists to provide both novice and expert Python developers a best-practice handbook to the installation, configuration, and usage of Python on a daily basis.

Donate

If you enjoy this guide, consider supporting the author on Gittip:

Feedback

Feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, comments, random praise, or anonymous threats, shoot me an email.

Useful Links

The Guide Website
The Guide @ GitHub
Issue Tracker

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