Python Topic Guides

Python Topic Guides provide overviews of Python resources associated with specific topics. They are produced by volunteers interested in making those resources easier for everyone to find. If you see a worthwhile topic which lacks a guide, and you'd like to create one, see below for instructions about arranging it.

Topic Guide Directory

• Scientific Computing - Numeric Python, Symbolic Computing, Data Plotting, etc
• XML - eXtensible Markup Language provisions
• Tkinter - Python's de-facto GUI standard (based on Tcl/Tk).
• Databases - About interfacing with external databases (commercial or otherwise).
• Web Programming - General guide to using CGI and other Web-related progamming with Python.

How do Topic Guides Differ from Special Interest Groups (SIGS)?

Topic guides are for orienting people on the collective Python resources associated with a topic, while SIGs are for collaboration about active development of a specific project.

Producing Topic Guides

First of all, topic guides are produced by volunteers, so the topic must be important enough to at least one person - the guide producer. If you notice a worthwhile topic which lacks a guide, consider creating it. We would like for guide producers to update the guide in some proportion to the developments of Python resources w.r.t. the topic, or to help find someone to take over the maintenance of the guide, when necessary. However, given a good topic and a solid guide which will at least help people get started with the topic, we are likely to want it.

If you would like to produce a guide, contact webmaster@python.org with a proposal. Include a description of the topic, an outline of the resources, and, if not obvious, the reason it warrants its own guide. Below are some prospective categories - actual guide topics may fall within or outside these categories, they're just here to spur inspiration...-)

• Graphics
• Graphical User Interfaces
• Language issues
  • Extending and Embedding
  • Static typing and compilation
• Network programming
  • Web programming (Scripting, interfaces, servers)
  • Python and Middleware (CORBA, COM, etc)
  • Low-level network interface (sockets, encryption/authentication, protocols)
• Programming and development environment
• Text processing (regex, document generation)
• Operating system interfaces

Here is a sample of the kinds of resources a topic guide might include:

• Homes of external libraries, docs, news groups, fan clubs:-), etc
• Special Interest Groups
• HOWTOs
• Hints
• The FAQ
• Contributed Links
• Contributed Uploads
• Relevant Reading
• The Python Starship

At first we will be handling the topic guides by hand - taking text with links via, eg, email. We will eventually have an automated system by which topic guide producers can submit and edit their documents via a cgi interface, producing pages that conform to the python.org style. More on that as it develops.