Press Release

ActiveState Releases ActivePython 2.0 to the Community: Most Comprehensive Cross-Platform Distribution Available

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000-- ActiveState, the leading provider of Internet programming software and services announces that ActivePython 2.0 is available for download. ActivePython is ActiveState's free binary distribution of Python for the Linux, Solaris and Windows platforms. ActivePython enables programmers to get up and running faster with precompiled libraries, which run on all the popular operating systems, and with the numerous Windows-specific extensions by Mark Hammond, Senior Python Developer, ActiveState.

``We're delighted to bring the same high level of quality and reliability to the Python community that we have for Perl programmers,'' said Dick Hardt, Founder & CEO, ActiveState. ``We're fully committed to increasing Python's already fast growth rate with a host of user-friendly Python products and services such as ActivePython, Python for .NET, Visual Python, and PythonDirect.''

``I'm happy to see multiple sources of Python distributions and I'm glad to see that ActiveState is supporting and promoting Python. I hope that ActivePython will further contribute to Python's accessibility, making it available to a whole new category of programmers,'' said Guido van Rossum, creator of Python.

ActivePython 2.0 Features:

• Cross-platform installer for Linux, Solaris, and Windows
• Integrated support for Windows APIs
• Online documentation
• Precompiled extension libraries
• PythonCOM support
• PythonWin development environment

``The Win32 extensions for Python helps us build scalable multi-threaded server applications,'' said John Demelis, R&D Manager, 80-20 Software. ``The PythonWin editor and debugger save us loads of time in the creation of our knowledge management software.

``Python has always been easy to learn but it can be hard to find, compile and install extensions modules. Our release integrates extensions optimized for our target platforms of Linux, Solaris and Windows. For example we have built-in support for XML parsing, textual and graphical user interfaces, audio and more. On Windows, we ship with Mark Hammond's famous extension that access the entire Windows API including COM, ASP, ODBC and MFC. The PythonWin development environment completes the package. ActivePython extends Python's 'batteries included' philosophy,'' said Paul Prescod, ActivePython 2.0 Project Lead.

About ActiveState:

ActiveState is at the forefront of open source infrastructure software, providing Internet programming products and services for all popular operating systems including Linux, Solaris, and Windows. ActiveState's key technology platforms are Perl, the Internet's most popular programming language and Python, a user-friendly scripting language. ActiveState solutions provide enterprise-wide deployment of Perl and Python, improved programmer productivity, and seamless integration with other technologies. ActiveState believes in the evolution of core Perl and Python technologies and is committed to broadening the appeal of Perl and Python by making available easy to install packages for popular operating systems. For more information visit http://www.ActiveState.com.

     ActiveState, Vancouver
     Lori Pike, 604/484-6417
     LoriP@ActiveState.com
     http://www.ActiveState.com