New to Python, familiar with Perl - Seeking info sources

[alex23]

On Jul 24, 11:53 pm, Brett Ritter <swift... at swiftone.org> wrote:
> My question is: What are the best sources to learn best practices or
> Are there any good sources to tell me
> what Perl habits are good/bad in the Python paradigm?

I've never used Perl myself, so I can't comment on the quality, but
this document was recommended earlier this week:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PerlPhrasebook

> What about
> common packages that will change my life?  (I do a lot of web work,
> but also a lot of DB reporting)

If you're not anti-ORM, I highly recommend checking out SQLAlchemy.
It's not part of the standard lib, but it's an amazing tool:
http://www.sqlalchemy.org/

> The (occasionally complete) Perl
> Advent calendars have proven to be a good source to learn about
> helpful modules that I might not otherwise stumble across.

You might appreciate Doug Hellman's Python Module of the Week blog:
http://www.doughellmann.com/projects/PyMOTW/

> (I've encountered Django, but I'm getting my fill of "frameworks" from
> Java for the moment, so I'm looking for lightweight pieces at the
> moment)

The Web Services Gateway Interface (WSGI) was designed to promote the
building of web applications using interchangeable middleware. It's
definitely worth having an understanding of if you plan on developing
web apps in Python:
http://www.wsgi.org/wsgi/

If you're wanting to avoid the larger frameworks, check out CherryPy,
it's a thing of beauty:
http://www.cherrypy.org/