Where is Python 2.0 installed?

[RenoWV]

I am looking at an image generation program called "Vorras Antibot" to prevent automatic form submission by robots (

http://vorras.com/products/antibot/).

Under the System Requirements, it says: "Python 2.0 or higher installed".

Since I have never worked in Python I'm a little confused -- does this mean that I must install Python 2.0 in my own directory at my hosting account (which the script then references)? Or, does it mean that the ISP must have it installed, as it would for example with a perl interpreter?

If I must install it myself, then where is it available?

If the host must already have it installed, then how common is it for an ISP to offer this?

Sorry for all the questions but as I said, this is new to me... thanks for any advice....

 

[ericbrunson]

It sounds like it requires Python to be installed on the host computer, and that can be either as a system wide installation or (if pressed) you can do a local installation.

I run an ISP and we have python installed, but that's because we run Redhat Linux and it comes by default, and I love python as a language.

As far as where to get it, did you try looking for it at all? Google, altavista, search.msn.com? Typing "python" into IE found it in the first 5 links, typing "python" into mozilla actually took me to the website. People on these forums are much more likely to help you if you've demonstrated SOME effort to research the problem yourself.

Try

http://www.python.org.

 

[RenoWV]

Thanks eric for answering my question. I was thinking at first that perhaps most ISP's offered python support by default, but then added the "where to find" question to my posting as an afterthought... and you're right -- a simple check would have provided the (very good) resource that you referenced.

 

[ericbrunson]

If you have shell access to your ISPs hosting machine it would be simple to find our if python is installed. If not, but you have CGI access, it would be slightly more difficult, but possible.

 

[RenoWV]

I just used a cgi script called "mojoenv.cgi" to list all the environmental variables for my account at our hosting service, but nothing related to python came up, so I'm assuming they have not installed it. I am not in the server biz so do not know if it is difficult for them, but if not, perhaps they'll respond to a request to have Python 2.3 included along with all their other programs...

 

[ericbrunson]

You don't need anything in your environment to run python, you just have to know the path to the executable.

Installing python is pretty easy. If they already offer perl, php, etc. then I don't know why they would hate to offer python.

What language is mojoenv.cgi written in? I could post you a simple script in any unix language to try to find the python executable.

 

[RenoWV]

Thanks again eric -- it's very kind of you to offer to help here. Before you go to any trouble, I will write to these folks to see what they say. I was under the (incorrect) impression that mojoenv.cgi would tell me all the info regarding what I could and could not run (by the way, it is a perl script).

I'm just now sticking my toe into the python water and this little project is a kind of "test" so to speak, so it's nothing essential to the operation of my site. If the host comes back and says that they have python then all is well, if not, I'll suggest to them that they install the current version 2.3 at the python.org site that you provided...