.. _credo-pythonlinks:

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Links to useful Python info, such as tutorials
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General Python tutorials / skills
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Good intoductory tutorials for learning Python.

* Basic tutorial: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/
* The archived `Python mailing list <http://effbot.org/zone/python-list.htm>`_
* General (computational) programming tutes, focused around Python: 

  * `Rur-Ple: <http://code.google.com/p/rur-ple/>`_ - An interactive tutorial
    about Python, based around programming a simple robot - looks fun!
  * Alan Gauld's quick programming tutorial - 
    http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

* Software Carpentry: http://software-carpentry.org/ (A good all-round
  intro to Software for scientists & engineers, but with a
  particular focus on Python)
* S Lott's `Building Skills in Python
  <http://homepage.mac.com/s_lott/books/python/html/index.html>`_ - looks really
  good.

  * Includes a section on `writing CSV, XML and other file formats
    <http://homepage.mac.com/s_lott/books/python/html/p04/p04c07_file2.html>`_.

* Michael Foord's `Python Articles page <http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles.shtml>`_ - includes good articles on eg Testing, and Duck Typing in Python.
  
* The book `Python for Software Design - how to think like a Computer Scientist 
  <http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/>`_, 
  (`direct html link <http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html>`_)
  has some good examples couched in general programmer skill training.

Tutorials particularly from the perspective of those with experience in Perl
scripting, and Bash scripting:

* Python and Perl tutorial: http://xahlee.org/perl-python/index.html 
  - showing examples of how to do common tasks in both languages.
* Red Hat Magazine's `"Python for Bash Scripters - a well-kept secret"
  <http://magazine.redhat.com/2008/02/07/python-for-bash-scripters-a-well-kept-secret/>`_

Tutorials more for the appropriate 'software engineering' in Python
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* Tutorial on making & managing distributable packages:
  http://guide.python-distribute.org/

Python libraries of interest for scientific analysis
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Regarding these libraries, there is potential for their future integration
into the standard CREDO toolbox - but for now users are free to download and
experiment with them.

* HDF5 analysis in Python: http://h5py.alfven.org/