Ten more essential Python tips

Python documentation tool
You can pop up a graphical interface for searching the Python documentation using the command:

$ pydoc -g

You will need python-tk package for this to work.

Python documentation server
You can start an HTTP server on the given port on the local machine. This will give you a nice-looking access to all Python documentation, including third-party module documentation.

$ pydoc -p <portNumber>

Python development software
There are plenty of tools to assist you with Python development. Here are a few important ones:

IDLE: The Python built-in IDE, with autocompletion, function signature popup help, and file editing.
IPython: Another enhanced Python shell with tab-completion and other features.
Eric3: A GUI Python IDE with autocompletion, class browser, built-in shell and debugger.
WingIDE: Commercial Python IDE with free licence available to open-source developers.

Executing functions at the time of Python interpreter termination
You can use ‘atexit’ module to execute functions at the time of Python interpreter termination.

[Example]
def sum():
print(4+5)
def message():
print(“Executing Now”)
import atexit
atexit.register(sum)
atexit.register(message)
Output:
Executing Now
9

Converting from integer to binary, hexadecimal and octal
Python provides easy-to-use functions – bin(), hex() and oct() – to convert from integer to binary, decimal and octal format respectively.

[Example]
>>> bin(24)
‘0b11000’
>>> hex(24)
‘0×18’
>>> oct(24)
‘030’

This article originally appeared in issue 83 of Linux User & Developer. Click here for more tutorials from the magazine.