Calling Mac programs from Python instead of from AppleScript

[dvschorre at sbcglobal.net]

When I'm running Script Editor, I can get Maya to draw a sphere by
typing:

tell application "Maya"
	execute "sphere"
end tell

When I try this using Python, I get this error message:

IDLE 1.2.2
>>> app('Maya').execute('sphere')

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
    app('Maya').execute('sphere')
NameError: name 'app' is not defined
>>>

Maybe I need to load some libraries first.

Please help me to get started.

Thanks
 Dewey V. Schorre