Just an FYI for those of you who like this blog. I have recently opened a Mouse Vs. the Python Twitter account to make it even easier to follow updates to this blog. You can find it here: http://twitter.com/mousevspython I am experimenting with WordPress plugins that can auto-post to Twitter, but haven’t had much luck […]
This Blog Gets a Twitter Account Read More »
The wxPython project is one of the most popular and easy to use Python GUI toolkit. It wraps the popular C++ wxWidgets project using SWIG. It is also the only cross-platform toolkit that I am aware of that uses the native widgets on each platform wherever possible (for better or for worse). Some like to
Whether you’re new to Python, been using it for a few years or you’re an expert, knowing how to use Python’s introspection capabilities can help your understanding of your code and that new package you just downloaded with the crappy documentation. Introspection is a fancy word that means to observe oneself and ponder one’s thoughts,
Python 101: Introspection Read More »
Update (10/12/2010) – One of my alert readers told me that SqlAlchemy 0.6.x currently does NOT support the Access dialect. Read here for more info. A year or two ago, I was asked to transfer some data from some old Microsoft Access files to our Microsoft SQL Server. Since I enjoy using SqlAlchemy, I decided
SqlAlchemy and Microsoft Access Read More »
Python Multimedia Application Beginner’s Guide By Ninad Sathaye Amazon Packt
Book Review: Python Multimedia Application Beginner’s Guide Read More »
The other day, I was tasked with finding a way to get a list of all running processes on a Windows XP virtual machine. I was also supposed to include information about how much CPU and memory each process used. Fortunately, this didn’t have to be a remote script, but one that could be run
How to Find and List All Running Processes with Python Read More »
Some people learn through doing it, others are better with visual stimuli. At least, that’s what we’re told. So in the spirit of what we’ve been taught, we’re going to take a look at the visual half of the equation and see how we can make graphs with wxPython. You may not know this, but
wxPython: PyPlot – Graphs with Python Read More »
Jesse Noller just put out the call for proposals for PyCon 2011. That means that you have the chance to give a talk to a whole bunch of geeky pythonistas! Get your thinking caps out and put those suckers on! If I go this year, I want to see some amazing and interesting talks so
You Could Speak at PyCon Read More »
I’ve been thinking that it would rock if this website had a cool logo or artwork of some sort. So I thought I would create a contest to allow my talented readers a chance to help me out here. Here’s what I’m looking for: Some kind of banner or background picture A mouse (the furry
Contest: Create a Logo for My Blog! Read More »
This week, I finished editing another book for Packt Publishing. The book’s name is Python Graphics Cookbook by Mike Ohlson de Fine (I think). You may wonder why I don’t know if de Fine is the author. Well, Packt thinks that its Technical Editors shouldn’t know that information. In fact, Packt is so cagey (and
Book Preview: Python Graphics Cookbook Read More »
Back in March of this year, I wrote a simple tutorial on Reportlab, a handy 3rd party Python package that allows the developer to create PDFs programmatically. Recently, I received a request to cover how to do tables in Reportlab. Since my Reportlab article is so popular, I figured it was probably worth the trouble
Reportlab Tables – Creating Tables in PDFs with Python Read More »
The other day, I received a complaint that my original notebook example in my Book control series was too complicated. I don’t really write just n00b-friendly articles and never claimed to, but this comment rankled, so I decided to write a super simple example for the wxPython newbies. I hope you like it!
wxPython: A Simple Notebook Example Read More »
Accessing databases with Python is a simple process. Python even provides a sqlite database library that’s built into the main distribution (since 2.5). My favorite way to access databases with Python is to use the 3rd party package, SqlAlchemy. SqlAlchemy is an object-relational mapper (ORM), which means that it takes SQL constructs and makes them
SqlAlchemy: Connecting to pre-existing databases Read More »
After about a year or so at my current job, as we were still working on upgrading the last few Windows 98 machines to Windows XP, we had a need to check which machines on our network were getting low on disk space. The issue was cropping up because we had Windows XP loaded on
Getting Remote Drive Space on Windows Read More »
When I began learning Python, one of the first things I needed to know how to do was open a file. Now, the term “open a file” can mean different things depending on the context. Sometimes it means to actually open the file with Python and read from it, like with a text file. Other
Python 101: How to Open a File or Program Read More »