A snippet of code from the Color Commons interactive light sculpture in Boston, USA http://newamericanpublicart.com/colorcommons/index.html

color-commons.py

try:
    program = int(d[color[0:25].lower()])
except KeyError:
    print 'color {0} not found'.format(color)
    program = int(d['red'])
command = 'X04%(number)2.2X' % {"number": program}
print 'Translated {0} to {1}'.format(color, command)
if (command in allowed_commands):
    pytronics.serialWrite(command, speed=9600)
else:
    print "Command {0} is not one of the allowed commands.".format(command)
return('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Response></Response>')