41. Undocumented Modules

Here’s a quick listing of modules that are currently undocumented, but that should be documented. Feel free to contribute documentation for them! (Send via email to docs@python.org.)

The idea and original contents for this chapter were taken from a posting by Fredrik Lundh; the specific contents of this chapter have been substantially revised.

41.1. Miscellaneous useful utilities

Some of these are very old and/or not very robust; marked with “hmm.”

ihooks

— Import hook support (for rexec; may become obsolete). Removed in Python 3.x.

41.2. Platform specific modules

These modules are used to implement the os.path module, and are not documented beyond this mention. There’s little need to document these.

ntpath

— Implementation of os.path on Win32, Win64, WinCE, and OS/2 platforms.

posixpath

— Implementation of os.path on POSIX.

bsddb185

— Backwards compatibility module for systems which still use the Berkeley DB 1.85 module. It is normally only available on certain BSD Unix-based systems. It should never be used directly.

41.3. Multimedia

audiodev

— Platform-independent API for playing audio data. Removed in Python 3.x.

linuxaudiodev

— Play audio data on the Linux audio device. Replaced in Python 2.3 by the ossaudiodev module. Removed in Python 3.x.

sunaudio

— Interpret Sun audio headers (may become obsolete or a tool/demo). Removed in Python 3.x.

toaiff

— Convert “arbitrary” sound files to AIFF files; should probably become a tool or demo. Requires the external program sox. Removed in Python 3.x.

41.4. Undocumented Mac OS modules

41.4.1. applesingle — AppleSingle decoder

Platforms: Mac

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.2. buildtools — Helper module for BuildApplet and Friends

Platforms: Mac

Deprecated since version 2.4.

41.4.3. cfmfile — Code Fragment Resource module

Platforms: Mac

cfmfile is a module that understands Code Fragments and the accompanying “cfrg” resources. It can parse them and merge them, and is used by BuildApplication to combine all plugin modules to a single executable.

Deprecated since version 2.4.

41.4.4. icopen — Internet Config replacement for open()

Platforms: Mac

Importing icopen will replace the built-in open() with a version that uses Internet Config to set file type and creator for new files.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.5. macerrors — Mac OS Errors

Platforms: Mac

macerrors contains constant definitions for many Mac OS error codes.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.6. macresource — Locate script resources

Platforms: Mac

macresource helps scripts finding their resources, such as dialogs and menus, without requiring special case code for when the script is run under MacPython, as a MacPython applet or under OSX Python.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.7. Nav — NavServices calls

Platforms: Mac

A low-level interface to Navigation Services.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.8. PixMapWrapper — Wrapper for PixMap objects

Platforms: Mac

PixMapWrapper wraps a PixMap object with a Python object that allows access to the fields by name. It also has methods to convert to and from PIL images.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.9. videoreader — Read QuickTime movies

Platforms: Mac

videoreader reads and decodes QuickTime movies and passes a stream of images to your program. It also provides some support for audio tracks.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.4.10. W — Widgets built on FrameWork

Platforms: Mac

The W widgets are used extensively in the IDE.

Deprecated since version 2.6.

41.5. Obsolete

These modules are not normally available for import; additional work must be done to make them available.

These extension modules written in C are not built by default. Under Unix, these must be enabled by uncommenting the appropriate lines in Modules/Setup in the build tree and either rebuilding Python if the modules are statically linked, or building and installing the shared object if using dynamically-loaded extensions.

timing

— Measure time intervals to high resolution (use time.clock() instead). Removed in Python 3.x.

41.6. SGI-specific Extension modules

The following are SGI specific, and may be out of touch with the current version of reality.

cl

— Interface to the SGI compression library.

sv

— Interface to the “simple video” board on SGI Indigo (obsolete hardware). Removed in Python 3.x.