Python descriptors were introduced in Python 2.2, along with new style classes, yet they remain widely unused. Python descriptors are a way to create managed attributes. Among their many advantages, managed attributes are used to protect an attribute from changes or to automatically update the values of a dependant attribute. Descriptors increase an understanding of Python, and improve coding skills. This article introduces descriptor protocol and demonstrates how to create and use descriptors.

IBM® DB2® pureXML® allows you to store XML data natively in a relational database management system, giving you the power and flexibility to report on this data without disturbing the advantages that its XML format offers. In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect to a DB2 database from the Python programming language, importing data about population from the United States Census Bureau. You will use Python to convert this CSV file into XML, before inserting this XML data natively into DB2. Finally, you will use Python to create a command-line application that produces some informative tables that you can access through a menu system.

In the first article in this series (Test-Driven Development with Python, Part 1) I started to build an event tracking application using the principle of test-driven development. Before writing any new code or making changes to any existing code, I wrote a failing test first. When the new test started passing, I stopped and moved on. It's a simple technique, but requires discipline in order to apply it successfully.

In this two-part article by Sylvain Hellegouarch, we will see how the project is designed and structured. We will first go through a basic CherryPy example. Then we will go through the CherryPy core, the publishing-object engine, and see how it wraps the HTTP protocol in an object-oriented library. Our next step will be to explore the concept of hooking into the core, the CherryPy library, and the tool mechanism. We will then review how CherryPy handles errors and exceptions and how you can benefit from it.

Natural Language Processing is used everywhere—in search engines, spell checkers, mobile phones, computer games, and even in your washing machine. Python's Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) suite of libraries has rapidly emerged as one of the most efficient tools for Natural Language Processing.

A quick reference document for newcomers to the language

Python 3 is the latest version of Guido van Rossum's powerful general-purpose programming language. It breaks backwards compatibility with the 2.x line but has cleaned up some syntax issues. This article is the first in a series that talks about the changes that affect the language and backwards compatibility, and it provides examples of new features.

Are you an experienced PHP developer who needs to learn Python? This article approaches the world of Python development from a PHP developer's perspective, translating familiar PHP concepts, such as variables, lists, and functions, into their Python equivalents.

Python is increasingly used by DBAs as a general-purpose scripting language, despite the pressure to adopt Microsoft's PowerShell. They find it easy to learn, powerful, and reasonably intuitive. This article explains the attraction of Python and gives a general introduction to the language, suitable for anyone who has been wondering whether to give it a try.

If you want to outsmart the Spanish Inquisition, learn Python. This article is a practical introduction to writing non-trivial applications in Python.