[Excerpt from an email describing how to build Python on AIX.]

Subject: Re: Python 1.0.0 BETA 5 -- also for Macintosh!

From: [email protected] (Stefan Esser)

To: [email protected]

Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 17:40:43 +0100

[...]

The following are [...] Instructions

to get a clean compile using gcc and xlc

under AIX 3.2.4.

Since I wanted to make sure that Python compiles

using both compilers and several sets of options

(ANSI and traditional C, optimize on/off) I didn't

try to include bash readline or other optional

modules.

'make test' succeeded using Python compiled with

the AIX C-compiler invoked as 'cc' and with options

'-o -qMEMMAX=4000' and compiled with 'gcc' and

options '-O -Wall'.

There were some problems trying to compile python

using 'gcc -ansi' (because of _AIX no longer being

defined), but I didn't have time to look into this.

Regards,

Stefan Esser

REQUIRED:

---------

1) AIX compilers don't like the LANG env

varaiable set to european locales.

This makes the compiler generate floating

point constants using "," as the decimal

seperator, which the assembler doesnt't

understand (or was it the other way around,

with the assembler expecting "," in float

numbers ???).

Anyway: "LANG=C; export LANG" solves the

problem, as does "LANG=C $(MAKE) ..." in

the master Makefile.

OPTIONAL:

---------

2) The xlc compiler considers "Python/ceval.c"

too complex to optimize, except when invoked

with "-qMEMMAX=4000".

[...]

What is Python?

---------------

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming

language. It incorporates modules, exceptions, dynamic typing, very

high level dynamic data types, and classes. Python combines

remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has interfaces to many

system calls and libraries, as well as to various window systems, and

is extensible in C or C++. It is also usable as an extension language

for applications that need a programmable interface. Finally, Python

is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, on the Mac, and on

MS-DOS.

As a short example of what Python looks like, here's a script to

print prime numbers (not blazingly fast, but readable!). When this

file is made executable, it is callable directly from the UNIX shell

(if your system supports #! in scripts and the python interpreter is

installed at the indicated place).

#!/usr/local/bin/python

# Print prime numbers in a given range

def main():

import sys

min, max = 2, 0x7fffffff

if sys.argv[1:]:

min = int(eval(sys.argv[1]))

if sys.argv[2:]:

max = int(eval(sys.argv[2]))

primes(min, max)

def primes(min, max):

if 2 >= min: print 2

primes = [2]

i = 3

while i <= max:

for p in primes:

if i%p == 0 or p*p > i: break

if i%p <> 0:

primes.append(i)

if i >= min: print i

i = i+2

main()

Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl,comp.lang.tcl

From: [email protected] (Mark Lutz)

Subject: Python (was Re: Has anyone done a tk addition to perl?)

Organization: XVT Software Inc.

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 17:10:37 GMT

X-Disclaimer: The views expressed in this message are those of an

individual at XVT Software Inc., and do not necessarily

reflect those of the company.

I've gotten a number of requests for information about Python,

since my post here earlier this week. Since this appears to be

of general interest, and since there's no python news group yet,

I'm posting a description here. I'm not the best authority on

the language, but here's my take on it.

[TCL/Perl zealots: this is informational only; I'm not trying to

'convert' anybody, and don't have time for a language war :-)

There is a paper comparing TCL/Perl/Python/Emacs-Lisp, which is

referenced in the comp.lang.misc faq, I beleive.]

What is Python?...

Python is a relatively new very-high-level language developed

in Amsterdam. Python is a simple, procedural language, with

features taken from ABC, Icon, Modula-3, and C/C++.

It's central goal is to provide the best of both worlds:

the dynamic nature of scripting languages like Perl/TCL/REXX,

but also support for general programming found in the more

traditional languages like Icon, C, Modula,...

As such, it can function as a scripting/extension language,

as a rapid prototyping language, and as a serious software

development language. Python is suitable for fast development

of large programs, but also does well at throw-away shell coding.

Python resembles other scripting languages a number of ways:

- dynamic, interpretive, interactive nature

- no explicit compile or link steps needed

- no type declarations (it's dynamically typed)

- high-level operators ('in', concatenation, etc)

- automatic memory allocation/deallocation (no 'pointers')

- high level objects: lists, tuples, strings, associative arrays

- programs can construct and execute program code using strings

- very fast edit/compile/run cycle; no static linking

- well-defined interface to and from C functions and data

- well-defined ways to add C modules to the system and language

Python's features that make it useful for serious programming:

- it's object-oriented; it has a simplified subset of

C++'s 'class' facility, made more useful by python's

dynamic typing; the language is object-oriented from

the ground up (rather than being an add-on, as in C++)

- it supports modules (imported packages, as in Modula-3);

modules replace C's 'include' files and linking, and allow

for multiple-module systems, code sharing, etc.;

- it has a good exception handling system (a 'try' statement,

and a 'raise' statement, with user-defined exceptions);

- it's orthogonal; everything is a first-class object in the

language (functions, modules, classes, class instance methods...)

and can be assigned/passed and used generically;

- it's fairly run-time secure; it does many run-time checks

like index-out-of-bounds, etc., that C usually doesn't;

- it has general data structuring support; Python lists are

heterogeneous, variable length, nestable, support slicing,

concatenation, etc., and come into existance and are reclaimed

automatically; strings and dictionaries are similarly general;

- it's got a symbolic debugger and profiler (written in python,

of course..), and an interactive command-line interface;

as in Lisp, you can enter code and test functions in isolation,

from the interactive command line (even linked C functions);

- it has a large library of built-in modules; it has support

for sockets, regular expressions, posix bindings, etc.

- it supports dynamic loading of C modules on many platforms;

- it has a _readable_ syntax; python code looks like normal

programming languages; tcl and perl can be very unreadable

(IMHO; what was that joke about Perl looking the same after

rot13..); python's syntax is simple, and statement based;

Of course, Python isn't perfect, but it's a good compromise betweem

scripting languages and traditional ones, and so is widely applicable.

'Perfect' languages aren't always useful for real-world tasks (Prolog,

for example), and languages at either extreme are not useful in the other

domain (C is poor for shell coding and prototyping, and awk is useless

for large systems design; Python does both well).

For example, I've used Python successfully for a 4K line expert system

shell project; it would have been at least twice as large in C, and would

have been very difficult in TCL or Perl.

Python uses an indentation-based syntax which may seem unusual at first

to C coders, but after using it I have found it to be _very_ handy, since

there's less to type. [I now forget to type '}' in my C code, and am

busy calculating how much time I wasted typing all those '}', 'END', etc.,

just to pander to 'brain-dead' C/Pascal compilers :-)].

Python's currently at release 0.9.9. It seems suprisingly stable.

The first 'official' 1.0 release is due out by the end of this year.

Python runs on most popular machines/systems (mac, dos, unix, etc.)

It's public domain and distributable, and can be had via ftp. The

distribution includes examples, tutorials, and documentation. The

latest ftp address I have (I got it on a cd-rom):

pub/python/* at ftp.cwi.nl

pub/? at wuarchive.wustl.edu (in america)

There's a python mailing list maintained by the language's creator.

Mail '[email protected]' to get on it.

Mark Lutz

Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum,

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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