Whether you are already comfortable with Bash or AppleScript — or just want to learn more about scripting in general — there are practical reasons to use Python. Python is quite different than Bash or AppleScript, yet you can write scripts just as quickly and end up with code that is easily reused. Python is a well-rounded language that is accessible to beginners, yet powerful enough for experts to use in large applications such as Munki or crankd.
We will start small with some introductory Python concepts — outlining some key language features that help explain why you would want to use Python over Bash or AppleScript — and work our way up to more complicated real-world examples.
Nate is a Macintosh Systems Engineer at Tamman Technologies, Inc in Philadelphia, PA. He is the managing editor for afp548.com and one of the founding members of the ##osx-server IRC channel on freenode.net. He loves being involved in the Mac Admin community and using Open Source projects whenever possible, especially Munki and The Luggage.
Jeremy Reichman is a Macintosh Systems Engineer with Tamman Technologies, Inc., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before that, he spent over fifteen years integrating Apple platforms with enterprise systems as a Senior Desktop Systems Engineer at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.