NEWBIE: Confussed about Python!

[Oleg Broytmann]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 04:05:32PM +0000, Max Adams wrote:
> Hello, i'm new to python although not new to programming in general - i have
> programmed in C++/Delphi/VB extensively.

   You are welcome!

> 1)  Can python run on a web server, and does it provide the same
> functionallity ASP and PHP do?

   Certainly! You can write CGIs in Python, or embed Python code; you can
install Python modules for Apache - this speeds things up, and the module
have their own APIs. There also a number of web application servers (no,
not web servers - web application servers) writte in Python.

> 2)  I assume that when code is compiled by the interpreter it compiles to an
> "a.out" executable under linux and a "program1.exe" under windows - the
> filenames are not important what i am trying to assertane is, is code
> compiled to a executable file format, or does more need to be done with it.

   No. Python, like Java, compiles into its ouw byte-code format. There are
tools that can combine a Python interpreter and the byte-code into single
executeable file.

> 3)  How can python be linked to databases such as Ms Access and MySQL?

   Using database modules:
      http://www.python.org/topics/database/modules.html

> 4)  What is python commonly used for?

   Everything! Python is simply the best, and suitable almost for anything
you can imagine. Well, it is not very fast, and requires some memory, but
other than that you are free to write whatever you want - network clients
and servers, cron jobs, GUI programs, games - everything! Really.

Oleg.
-- 
     Oleg Broytmann            http://phd.pp.ru/            phd at phd.pp.ru
           Programmers don't die, they just GOSUB without RETURN.