Beginning Python

[jcafaro10]

Hello,

I'm new to python and I'm trying to learn how to read/write programs written in python using eclipse. I'm used to java so a lot of things are familiar but a lot of things aren't and I'm having trouble finding a good place to go to learn what different methods do (like the java api for java).

For example I'm looking at a program and I see what the main method is:

def main (args):

But at the bottom of the program it says:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main(sys.argv)

What does that line mean? Is there a good reference for beginners that you could recommend to guide me through writing a simple program?

[jcafaro10]

I understand that main(sys.argv) calls the main method and provides (sys.argv) as argument. This I found out with a few google searches except things look a little different, some code I've looked at has an asterisk on the parameter, not quite sure what that means.

[Gribouillis]

Dive into python is a good tutorial http://diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

[lllllIllIlllI]

the asterix means a parameter that will catch all parameters that arent used in the first ones (if there are any) and all the left over parameters that are given to the method are then made into a list. For a reference see here:
http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/unites/sis/formation/python/ch06s06.html