I would like to produce this picture in python!
*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*********
**********
string object has rjust and ljust methods for precisely this thing.
>>> n = 10
>>> for i in xrange(1,n+1):
... print (i*'*').rjust(n)
...
*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*********
**********
or, alternatively:
>>> for i in reversed(xrange(n)):
... print (i*' ').ljust(n, '*')
...
*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*********
**********
My second example uses a space character as the printable character, and * as the fill character.
The argument to ljust or rjust is the terminal width. I often use these for separating sections with headings when you have chatty debug printout, e.g. print '--Spam!'.ljust(80, '-').