This is a static archive of the Python wiki, which was retired in February 2026 due to lack of usage and the resources necessary to serve it — predominately to bots, crawlers, and LLM companies.
Pages are preserved as they were at the time of archival. For current information, please visit python.org.
If a change to this archive is absolutely needed, requests can be made via the infrastructure@python.org mailing list.

The Python Wiki

Welcome to the Python Wiki, a user-editable compendium of knowledge based around the Python programming language. Some pages are protected against casual editing - see WikiEditingGuidelines for more information about editing content.

Python is a great object-oriented, interpreted, and interactive programming language. It is often compared (favorably of course :-) ) to Lisp, Tcl, Perl, Ruby, C#, Visual Basic, Visual Fox Pro, Scheme or Java... and it's much more fun.

Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. There are interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems. New built-in modules are easily written in C or C++ (or other languages, depending on the chosen implementation). Python is also usable as an extension language for applications written in other languages that need easy-to-use scripting or automation interfaces.

Getting Started

Events and Community

Software

Core Development