python

Python, in Greek mythology

Python, in Greek mythology, a huge serpent. In some myths the infant Apollo slew Python at the oracle of Gaea in Delphi; in others Apollo killed the serpent in order to claim the oracle for himself. The Pythian games celebrated the victory of Apollo over Python.

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python, in zoology

python (pī`thŏn), name for nonvenomous constrictor snakes of the boa family, found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the S Pacific islands. Pythons climb and swim expertly. They kill the birds and mammals on which they feed by squeezing them in their coils. Unlike boas, pythons are egg layers. The female coils her body over the eggs for the six to eight week incubation period. The reticulated, or royal, python, Python reticulatus, of SE Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines is one of the largest snakes in the world and may reach a length of 30 ft (9 m) or more. It is often found in towns as well as in the forest. Pythons are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Reptilia, order Squamata, family Boidae.

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python

Any of 28 species (family Pythonidae, sometimes a subfamily of Boidae) of sluggish, docile, nonvenomous snakes found in tropical and temperate regions. Except for one Central American species (Loxocemus bicolor), pythons are found from western Africa to China, Australia, and the Pacific islands. Pythons feed on birds and mammals, killing them by constriction. Most are found near water; some are arboreal. Unlike boas, pythons lay eggs (15–100, depending on body size). The Asian reticulated python (Python reticulatus) may be the world's longest snake (the anaconda is heavier); specimens over 30 ft (9 m) long have been recorded.

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Python

A popular, object-oriented scripting language used for writing system utilities and Internet scripts. It is also used as a glue language for integrating components in C and C++. Created by Guido van Rossum in Amsterdam in the early 1990s, it was named after the BBC comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Python is an interpreted language that compiles to bytecode and requires a "virtual machine" for runtime execution. It uses elements from C, C++ and Modula and supports interfaces to popular functions and libraries such as Unix sockets, the Tk GUI library, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and X11.

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python

any large nonvenomous snake of the family Pythonidae of Africa, S Asia, and Australia, such as Python reticulatus (reticulated python). They can reach a length of more than 20 feet and kill their prey by constriction

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python

nonvenomous jungle snake crushes its victims. [Zoology: NCE, 2252]

See : Deadliness

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python

huge serpent which sprang from stagnant waters after the Deluge. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 227]

See : Monsters

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Python - 1. A simple, high-level interpreted language invented by Guido van Rossum <guido@cwi.nl> in 1991. Python combines ideas from ABC, C, Modula-3 and Icon. It bridges the gap between C and shell programming, making it suitable for rapid prototyping or as an extension language for C applications. It is object-oriented and supports packages, modules, classes, user-defined exceptions, a good C interface, dynamic loading of C modules and has no arbitrary restrictions. Python is available for many platforms, including Unix, Windows, DOS, OS/2, Macintosh and Amoeba. Latest version: 2.5, as of 2007-02-21. http://python.org/. Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.python.