<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css" type='text/css' /> <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../icons/pyfav.gif" /> <link rel='start' href='../index.html' title='Python Documentation Index' /> <link rel="first" href="lib.html" title='Python Library Reference' /> <link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" /> <link rel='index' href='genindex.html' title='Index' /> <link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' /> <link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' /> <LINK rel="next" href="contents.html"> <LINK rel="prev" href="lib.html"> <LINK rel="parent" href="lib.html"> <LINK rel="next" href="contents.html"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta name='aesop' content='information' /> <META name="description" content="Front Matter"> <META name="keywords" content="lib"> <META name="resource-type" content="document"> <META name="distribution" content="global"> <title>Front Matter</title> </head> <body> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <div id='top-navigation-panel'> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="Python Library Reference" href="lib.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="Python Library Reference" href="lib.html"><img src='../icons/up.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/next.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Index' width='32' /></A></td> </tr></table> <div class='online-navigation'> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="lib.html">Python Library Reference</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="lib.html">Python Library Reference</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="next" href="contents.html">Contents</A> </div> <hr /></div> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <H1><A NAME="SECTION001000000000000000000"><!--x--></A><A NAME="front"><!--z--></A> <BR> Front Matter </H1> <P> Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003 Python Software Foundation. All rights reserved. <P> Copyright © 2000 BeOpen.com. All rights reserved. <P> Copyright © 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives. All rights reserved. <P> Copyright © 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum. All rights reserved. <P> See the end of this document for complete license and permissions information. <P> <H3>Abstract:</H3> <DIV CLASS="ABSTRACT"> <P> Python is an extensible, interpreted, object-oriented programming language. It supports a wide range of applications, from simple text processing scripts to interactive Web browsers. <P> While the <em class="citetitle"><a href="../ref/ref.html" title="Python Reference Manual" >Python Reference Manual</a></em> describes the exact syntax and semantics of the language, it does not describe the standard library that is distributed with the language, and which greatly enhances its immediate usability. This library contains built-in modules (written in C) that provide access to system functionality such as file I/O that would otherwise be inaccessible to Python programmers, as well as modules written in Python that provide standardized solutions for many problems that occur in everyday programming. Some of these modules are explicitly designed to encourage and enhance the portability of Python programs. <P> This library reference manual documents Python's standard library, as well as many optional library modules (which may or may not be available, depending on whether the underlying platform supports them and on the configuration choices made at compile time). It also documents the standard types of the language and its built-in functions and exceptions, many of which are not or incompletely documented in the Reference Manual. <P> This manual assumes basic knowledge about the Python language. For an informal introduction to Python, see the <em class="citetitle"><a href="../tut/tut.html" title="Python Tutorial" >Python Tutorial</a></em>; the <em class="citetitle"><a href="../ref/ref.html" title="Python Reference Manual" >Python Reference Manual</a></em> remains the highest authority on syntactic and semantic questions. Finally, the manual entitled <em class="citetitle"><a href="../ext/ext.html" title="Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter" >Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter</a></em> describes how to add new extensions to Python and how to embed it in other applications. <P> </DIV> <P> <P> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <div class='online-navigation'><hr /> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="Python Library Reference" rel="prev" title="Python Library Reference" href="lib.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="Python Library Reference" rel="parent" title="Python Library Reference" href="lib.html"><img src='../icons/up.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="Contents" rel="next" title="Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/next.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index" rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Index' width='32' /></A></td> </tr></table> <div class='online-navigation'> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="lib.html">Python Library Reference</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="lib.html">Python Library Reference</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="next" href="contents.html">Contents</A> </div> </div> <hr /> <span class="release-info">Release 2.3.4, documentation updated on May 20, 2004.</span> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <ADDRESS> See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes. </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>