The socket module exposes the low-level C API for communicating over a network using the BSD socket interface. It includes the socket class, for handling the actual data channel, and also includes functions for network-related tasks such as converting a server’s name to an address and formatting data to be sent across the network. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3.

The sqlite3 module provides a DB-API 2.0 compliant interface to SQLite, an in-process relational database. SQLite is designed to be embedded in applications, instead of using a separate database server program such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle. It is fast, rigorously tested, and flexible, making it suitable for prototyping and production deployment for some applications. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3.

The HMAC algorithm can be used to verify the integrity of information passed between applications or stored in a potentially vulnerable location. The basic idea is to generate a cryptographic hash of the actual data combined with a shared secret key. The resulting hash can then be used to check the transmitted or stored message to determine a level of trust, without transmitting the secret key. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3.

What’s new in 1.2.1? use universal wheels add support for local maildir folders add/update docstrings for classes add basic contributor docs for rules and actions add tox environment to test sphinx build configure travis-ci

The math module implements many of the IEEE functions that would normally be found in the native platform C libraries for complex mathematical operations using floating point values, including logarithms and trigonometric operations. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3. See PyMOTW.com for more articles from the series.

Last night I presented an introduction to Python context managers at PyATL.

The tarfile module provides read and write access to UNIX tar archives, including compressed files. In addition to the POSIX standards, several GNU tar extensions are supported. UNIX special file types such as hard and soft links, and device nodes are also handled. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3. See PyMOTW.com for more articles from the series.

The inspect module provides functions for learning about live objects, including modules, classes, instances, functions, and methods. The functions in this module can be used to retrieve the original source code for a function, look at the arguments to a method on the stack, and extract the sort of information useful for producing library documentation for source code. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3.

The decimal module implements fixed and floating point arithmetic using the model familiar to most people, rather than the IEEE floating point version implemented by most computer hardware and familiar to programmers. A Decimal instance can represent any number exactly, round up or down, and apply a limit to the number of significant digits. Read more… This post is part of the Python Module of the Week series for Python 3.

The time module provides access to several different types of clocks, each useful for different purposes. The standard system calls like time() report the system “wall clock” time. The monotonic() clock can be used to measure elapsed time in a long-running process because it is guaranteed never to move backwards, even if the system time is changed. For performance testing, perf_counter() provides access to the clock with the highest available resolution to make short time measurements more accurate.