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Front Matter
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Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Python Software Foundation.  All rights
reserved.

Copyright (C) 2000 BeOpen.com.  All rights reserved.

Copyright (C) 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
All rights reserved.

Copyright (C) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum.  All rights
reserved.

See the end of this document for complete license and permissions
information.

     Python is an extensible, interpreted, object-oriented programming
     language.  It supports a wide range of applications, from simple
     text processing scripts to interactive WWW browsers.

     While the describes the exact syntax and semantics of the
     language, it does not describe the standard library that is
     distributed with the language, and which greatly enhances its
     immediate usability.  This library contains built-in modules
     (written in C) that provide access to system functionality such as
     file I/O that would otherwise be inaccessible to Python
     programmers, as well as modules written in Python that provide
     standardized solutions for many problems that occur in everyday
     programming.  Some of these modules are explicitly designed to
     encourage and enhance the portability of Python programs.

     This library reference manual documents Python's standard library,
     as well as many optional library modules (which may or may not be
     available, depending on whether the underlying platform supports
     them and on the configuration choices made at compile time).  It
     also documents the standard types of the language and its built-in
     functions and exceptions, many of which are not or incompletely
     documented in the Reference Manual.

     This manual assumes basic knowledge about the Python language.
     For an informal introduction to Python, see the ; the  remains the
     highest authority on syntactic and semantic questions.  Finally,
     the manual entitled  describes how to add new extensions to Python
     and how to embed it in other applications.