added example for Python using the RPC API

Makefile.am

@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 EXTRA_DIST	= example.conf m4/gnulib-cache.m4 linux-usb-bfgminer \
 		  api-example.php miner.php	\
 		  API.class API.java api-example.c windows-build.txt \
-		  bitstreams/* README.FPGA README.RPC README.scrypt
+		  bitstreams/* README.FPGA README.RPC README.scrypt \
+                  api-example.py
 
 SUBDIRS		= lib ccan
 

README.RPC

@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ with the values after the '='
 If you enable BFGMiner debug (--debug or using RPC), you will also get messages
 showing some details of the requests received and the replies
 
-There are included 4 program examples for accessing the API:
+There are included 5 program examples for accessing the API:
 
 api-example.php - a PHP script to access the API
   usage: php api-example.php command
@@ -404,6 +404,11 @@ miner.php - an example web page to access the API
  See the end of this README.RPC for details of how to tune the display
  and also to use the option to display a multi-rig summary
 
+api-example.py - a Python script to access the API
+  usage: python api-example.py [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [command] [parameter]
+ by default it sends a 'summary' request to the miner at 127.0.0.1:4028
+ If you specify a command it will send that request instead
+
 ----------
 
 Feature Changelog for external applications using the API:

api-example.py

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+# author: Christian Berendt <berendt@b1-systems.de>
+
+import argparse
+import json
+import logging
+import pprint
+import socket
+
+logging.basicConfig(
+         format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s',
+         level=logging.DEBUG
+)
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+parser.add_argument("command", default="summary", nargs='?')
+parser.add_argument("parameter", default="", nargs='?')
+parser.add_argument("--hostname", default="localhost")
+parser.add_argument("--port", type=int, default=4028)
+args = parser.parse_args()
+
+s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+
+try:
+    s.connect((args.hostname, args.port))
+except socket.error, e:
+    logging.error(e)
+
+try:
+    s.send("{\"command\" : \"%s\", \"parameter\" : \"%s\"}"
+            % (args.command, args.parameter)
+          )
+except socket.error, e:
+    logging.error(e)
+
+
+data = None
+try:
+    data = s.recv(1024)
+except socket.error, e:
+    logging.error(e)
+
+try:
+    s.close()
+except socket.error,e:
+    logging.error(e)
+
+if data:
+    data = json.loads(data.replace('\x00', ''))
+    pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter()
+    pp.pprint(data)