Some interesting things have happened recently that have caused me to spend way too much time writing Python code:
- Google App Engine was release with native support for pure Python web applications. It’s now really easy to write and deploy Python applications that are extremely scalable on top of a solid (and portable) infrastructure.
- Apple released Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, and included support for Python as a first-class citizen in its Xcode development tool (which lets you develop with Xcode/Interface Builder pretty seamlessly), in its ScriptingBridge (which allows you to access AppleScript enabled applications using the goodness of Python, and not the confusingness of AppleScript), and allowing for very easy interaction with Cocoa objects (Apple’s GUI programming framework).
The net result of all this is that I’ve been spending a lot of time in Python. Surprised the hell out of me, but it’s the truth.
I have found the IPython command-shell particularly useful. It’s very well done, and has excellent documentation. Problem is, it doesn’t work so well on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Your screen gets scrogged because of a Readline conflict (see the video). Here’s my cookbook for getting it to work - it’s way easier than all the other documents on the Internet lead you to believe.
- Installing IPython on Mac OS X is actually quite easy with the following command:
sudo easy_install ipython - Execute the command to load the right Readline library:
sudo easy_install -f http://ipython.scipy.org/dist/ readline
That’s it. Let me know if that didn’t work for you.
Now, if you could only get Apple to include Python support in the iPhone SDK…
Worked for me, thanks!