Author: JT Smith
Python Cityis a new web site that hosts several open source Python scripts that allow you to manipulate the internet in intriguing ways.
For instance, the web spider mygale allows one to crawl the web and find all online articles mentioning ‘Python’. All the scripts at Python City are works in progress, so you can easily manipulate the code to allow you to crawl the web and search for other items of interest to you personally.
Another script askMerlin.py is an online Oracle that can answer any question you may ask it by scanning the web and using artificial intelligence techniques. Yet another script Decision_Analysis can help a person make decisions on any difficult subject at hand.
The real power of these scripts is that they are easily customizable, and the Python community can help answer any questions you may have as you proceed.
Python City also has links to 14 different online tutorials to help you learn Python. Python can be easily learned, using one or more of these tutorials, in a few hours by anyone with previous experience in any other programming language. Even a total newbie to programming can learn Python is a couple of weeks. The site also hosts detailed reviews of 17 different Python books, all reviewed from the perspective a relative newcomer to the language and to programming in general.
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the open source Python lnaguage, made headlines a few years ago with his Computer Programming for Everbody, or CP4E, initiative. It is Guido’s fondest goal to help create a computer language and a community surrounding it that can open up the seemingly esoteric world of programming to every educated person. The Python City web site is just one small step in that direction. It is a great site for newbies who think they may want to learn how to program, and especially if they are interested in web programming and open source coding in general.
