Python, Perl & PDF files

[Mike Meyer]

rbt <rbt at athop1.ath.vt.edu> writes:

> Are there any plans in the near future to support PDF files in Python
> as   thoroughly and completely as Perl does?
>
> http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/search?query=pdf&mode=dist

Claiming that CPAN represents Perl "supporting" something isn't really
accurate. Those are just third party libraries, not support in the
language. There is an extensive set of third party libraries available
for Python as well, but there's no central repository to make finding
them easy.

That said, you can check out both pdflib and reportlab. pdflib is a
library that includes bindings for python, and reportlab is a
python-coded library for generating PDF. Since you don't say what you
want to do with PDF, I can't tell you which, if either, of these will
do what you want.

> I love Python's clean syntax and ease of use, etc. But on some things
> (PDF for example) as barbaric as Perl's syntax is, it does outshine
> Python... I hate having to use Perl just to deal with PDF files. What
> do others do???

CPAN is a nice thing, and I'm sure that someone, somewhere, is working
on producing one for Python. Until it shows up, you have to learn to
search multiple places for third party libraries. Google works in this
case - the very first link on a search for "python pdf" is to an
article that talks about using reportlab with python.

        <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.