The Standard Library and the Vaults of Parnassus

A default Python install includes many modules (blocks of code) that enable you to interact with the operating system, open and manipulate files, parse command-line options, perform data hashing and encryption, and much more. This is one of the reasons most commonly cited when people are asked why they like Python so muchit comes stocked to the gills with functionality you can take advantage of immediately. In fact, the number of modules included in the Standard Library is so high that entire books have been written about themtry Python Standard Library (O'Reilly, ISBN: 0-596-00096-0) for a comprehensive, if slightly dated, list of them.

For unofficial scripts and add-ons for Python, the recommended starting place is called the Vaults of Parnassus: http://py.vaults.ca. There you can find about 20,000 public scripts and code examples for everything from mathematics to games.