Question

What library should I use for network programming? Is sockets the best, or is there a higher level interface, that is standard?

I need something that will be pretty cross platform (ie. Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), and it only needs to be able to connect to other Python programs using the same library.

Answer 1

You just want to send python data between nodes (possibly on separate computers)? You might want to look at SimpleXMLRPCServer. It’s based on the inbuilt HTTP server, which is based on the inbuilt Socket server, neither of which are the most industrial-strength servers around, but it’s easy to set up in a hurry:

from SimpleXMLRPCServer import SimpleXMLRPCServer
server = SimpleXMLRPCServer(("localhost", 9876))

def my_func(a,b):
    return a + b

server.register_function(my_func)
server.serve_forever()

And easy to connect to:

import xmlrpclib
s = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://localhost:9876')

print s.my_func(2,3) 
>>> 5
print type(s.my_func(2,3))
>>> <type 'int'>
print s.my_func(2,3.0):
>>> 7.0

Twisted is popular for industrial applications, but it’s got a brutal learning curve.