Python is an interpreted scripting language available on a wide variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
Learning Python
Free E-books
Dive Into Python is considered to be one of the best free introductions available, although it was last updated in 2004. Nevertheless, It provides good coverage on all the language basics, and common tasks such as web requests and file operations. For more advanced topics, Text Processing In Python is an excellent reference and tutorial.
Other free ebooks and online sources include:
- The Python Tutorial at docs.python.org
- Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 2.6 at Wikibooks
- Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist by Allen B. Downey (free PDF & HTML versions).
- Think Complexity by Allen B. Downey "picks up where Think Python leaves off" (free PDF & HTML versions)
- Learn Python The Hard Way by Zed Shaw (free HTML verison)
- Building Skills in Python by Steven F. Lott (also available as a PDF)
Once you've learned the basics of the language, Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python is a tutorial that will help you acclimate to specific aspects of Python that differentiate it from other programming languages.
Free Online Courses
- Google's Python Class
- Learnstreet's Free Python Courses and Videos
- Python at Codecademy
- A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python at MIT
- Firebox Training's Free Python course video tutorial blog
Python in Mozilla-based applications
XPCOM in Mozilla is used to support inter-language communication. Out-of-box it only supports C++ <-> JavaScript communication. The Python XPCOM package (also called PyXPCOM) is the low-level glue that ties Python and Mozilla together, letting XPCOM components written in JavaScript or C++ to be used from Python and vice versa. PyXPCOM is not included in the default Firefox build, so you'll need to use a third-party build or build yourself to use it. The most known consumer of PyXPCOM is the Komodo family of products.
Starting with Mozilla 1.9, Python DOM (PyDOM) bindings are implemented. This lets chrome XUL and HTML authors use Python in their <script> tags (again, not in the official Firefox/Thunderbird builds).
Python-based tools for Mozilla development
Python is used by Mozillians for tools that do various things with Mozilla apps and infrastructure. It would be useful to have a document on Python Environment and Tools for Mozilla.
Tools are listed here: https://k0s.org/toolbox/?language=python
Use of Python at Mozilla
Mozilla has considerable infrastructure based on python:
- django for webdev
- buildbot for continuous integration
- many of our test harnesses
- mozbase : building blocks for test harnesses, tools, and other infrastructure
Python in Mozilla-Central
[Stub: see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=835553]
Much of the build system, the testing system, and other tools and infrastructure in mozilla-central are python.
python/
contains common python code including third party packages mirrored from (e.g.) pypi.python.orgtesting/mozbase/
contains a mirror ofMozbase
packages as used in mozilla-central
A virtualenv is made in the objdir
on invocation of the build at $OBJDIR/_virtualenv
. To add packages to the virtualenv, edit build/virtualenv_packages.txt . These are installed on build via build/virtualenv/populate_virtualenv.py .
Python packaging
Python uses setup.py files to record metadata and installation instructions for python packages. Running (e.g.) python setup.py install
will install the package, making its modules available on python's import path. For python 2.x, several distribution/installation modules exist. distutils
is the only distribution package available in python's standard library. distutils
has ability to upload to the python package index and to install python packages. See the Python documentation on distutils
for details.
While distutils
is built in to python's standard library, setuptools is a third-party ad hoc standard for packaging and distribution. It is mostly compatible with distutils
, but importantly adds the ability for packages to include dependencies that are installed as prerequisites at the time setup.py
is invoked as well as the ability to install python packages in development mode. This allows the files to be edited in place via .pth files which is handy if you are actively working on a project. setuptools
also provides an easy_install
script for installing packages and their dependencies through the web from PyPI. For instance, in order to install the PyYAML package, just run
easy_install PyYAML
Since setuptools
is not included with python, you will need to install it in order to use it. You may install it from the setuptools
PyPI page by downloading, extracting, and running python setup.py install
. Or you can use the ez_setup.py
script. You can download and run it with python (with root/Administrator privileges), or if you're in a bash shell, you can run
sudo python <(curl https://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py)
setuptools
is also provided with instances of virtualenv, so if you use virtualenvs for developing you may not need to install setuptools
globally. distribute is a fork of setuptools written by Mozilla's own Tarek Ziade. It is compatible with setuptools
and fixes a few bugs there.
The Python Package Index (PyPI) is the standard distribution point for python packages. If you need some functionality in python, it is a good place to look!
See also: https://k0s.org/portfolio/packaging.html
See also
- Releasing an application (Mozilla Services documentation)
- https://pycheesecake.org/wiki/PythonTestingToolsTaxonomy
- https://wiki.mozilla.org/Auto-tools/Python101
- Python Projects at Code Garage