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Accessing "GIS (ESRI shape file)" files from Python ?

Hi - As usual having Python is making me consider doing things I wouldn't normally ! I've come across some files described as "GIS version (ESRI shape file)" which consitute an electronic map of the Wellington, New Zealand. There are six files in the package : suburbs.shx suburbs.prj suburbs.sbn suburbs.sbx suburbs.shp suburbs.shp.xml suburbs.dbf Can anyone tell me - is there, freely available, existing software accessible from Python which would allow me to read these files ? http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t326894-accessing-gis-esri-shape-file-files-from-python.html
With ESRI’s use of Python as their scripting language and the proliferation of open source GIS, Python became one of the required languages for GIS developers and hobbyists alike. What makes Python powerful is well documented throughout the web , but I want to highlight one very important aspects of Python today: Python Modules. Python Modules are code someone else has written and distributed, in order to make life easier for the rest of us. You may be familiar with the standard modules that come with Python , like math or datetime, but there are numerous more resources out there for the GIS minded developers. I will be discussing some of the modules I find essential in my work apart from the famous ArcGISScripting module by ESRI: GDAL, numpy, NetworkX, xlrd and xlwt. Let’s dive in!

The Essential Python Modules for GIS | Michalis Avraam

http://michalisavraam.org/2010/04/the-essential-python-modules-for-gis/
http://www.portailsig.org/content/python-et-les-shapefiles

Python et les Shapefiles

Lorsqu'en 1998, la firme ESRI publie les spécifications du format shapefile ( http://www.esri.com/library/whitepap.../shapefile.pdf ), elle fait oeuvre de pionnier en libérant ce format. Elle en fait un format universel non lié à une plateforme ni à un logiciel (contrairement à ses pratiques actuelles, Geodatabases and co...). Il est vrai, qu'à l'époque la firme œuvrait encore dans le monde UNIX avant de se lier totalement à Windows. Ces spécifications sont résumées sur le Wikipedia anglais ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile ). En gros, les fichiers .shp et .shx sont des fichiers binaires avec une structure bien définie dans les divers tableaux des deux liens précédents.