Python and Facebook

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Jerry Rocteur <jerry.rocteur at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I posted this mail on Friday and received no replies..
>
> I'm curious..
>
> Is it because
>
> 1) Python is not the language to use for Facebook, use Javascript or XXX
> ?? instead ? Please tell.
> 2) I've missed the point and this is very well documented so RTFM (I
> couldn't find it)
> 3) You guys don't use Facebook, you have a life ..

I personally don't use Facebook, but I don't have much of a life
either..... But I've never heard of a specific Python-Facebook module,
until just now when I googled it and found a couple of things.

Two points:

1) Python's pretty good at networking. If all else fails, you can
always just implement whatever Facebook's API is (the Google snippets
suggest it's REST, ie all HTTP, which Python does admirably), and go
from there.

2) An active Python-Facebook module will have active developers who
probably know far more about how to use their module than random
people like me who happen to read all of python-list :) There may well
be such people on this list, but since you've received no replies,
it's possible there aren't. (It's also possible that they don't
monitor this list on weekends, though. You never know.)

3) What do Facebook think of you downloading all their content and
viewing it without their ads? Not that I particularly care, but it may
be something to consider, since you're effectively going to get
everything that Facebook offers you (ie posts/pics/etc) without
everything that Facebook steals from you and sells (page views, ad
impressions, etc).

(Among our points are such diverse elements as... wrong Pythons, but whatever.)

There's no official Python-Facebook module (afaik!!), but a quick web
search for 'python facebook' should get you to the couple that I saw,
and possibly others. The next question is, do you trust any of them...
Good luck with that one! :)

Chris Angelico