Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Aug 12)

[Irmen de Jong]

QOTW:  "What can I do with Python that I can't do with C#?  You can go home
on time at the end of the day." -- Daniel Klein

"Python lends itself to playing with it and to discussing the merits of code
snippets with other people.  It's one of the 'language' languages, in that
it's suitable for people to communicate using it, and it can even be used as
[a] tool to check ones thoughts." -- Anton Vredegoor


Discussion
----------
     Last week's QOTW from Gary Herron was about three of Python's
     "shortcomings", or actually, strengths (according to many).
     This week, we have a true sore point: Python's supposed lack of
     proper Symmetric Multiprocessor scalability.
         <http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=ad02da8c.0308060705.7ff1fa4f@posting.google.com>

     Python's random number generator was improved for Pytho 2.3, but this
     caused problems when you are upgrading from 2.2 and are depending on
     the sequence of numbers to be reproducible (for simulations,
     for instance).  Raymond Hettinger has the solution.
         <http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=WiQYa.292$794.140@nwrdny02.gnilink.net>

     Tim Peters explains why it is relatively safe to take Python 2.3
     for a test drive on Windows (it won't leave litter behind when
     uninstalled, and works side-to-side with other existing versions).
         <http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.1059951487.27773.python-list@python.org>

     Bengt Richter puts forward some interesting ideas for a cross-
     platform 'py2exe' tool and executable file format.
         <http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=bh4i9e$8ah$0@216.39.172.122>

     Thomas Heller found a solution for a possible problem with creating
     an executable with py2exe from python code that requires encodings.
     (For instance, when you're using pyxml).
         <http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=znilckk9.fsf@python.net>


Announcements
-------------
     gmpy 1.0 alpha, a wrapper for the well known GNU MP library,
     to provide multi-precision arithmetic for Python.
         <http://gmpy.sourceforge.net/>

     Confluence 0.6, a functional programming language for digital logic
     design (FPGA/ASIC) and real-time embedded software development.
     Confluence source code compiles into Python, amongst others.
         <http://www.launchbird.com/download.html>

     Effbot's ElementTree 1.2 alpha 2, ElementTidy 1.0 alpha 1.
     The ElementTree package provides a Python implementation of the
     'Element' type, plus code to serialize element trees to and from
     XML files. ElementTidy is an alternative tree builder that can read
     arbitrary HTML, and turn it into well-formed XHTML element trees.
         <http://effbot.org/downloads/>

     EmPy 3.0.4, a powerful and robust templating system for Python.
         <http://www.alcyone.com/pyos/empy/>

     Snakelets 1.2, a simple Python web application server, mainly for
     educational purposes. It includes a web server, HTML+Python pages,
     and code-centric page request handlers.
         <http://snakelets.sourceforge.net/>

     omniORB version 4.0.2 and omniORBpy 2.2, a robust, high performance
     CORBA ORB. OmniORBpy is a version for Python.
         <http://omniorb.sourceforge.net/>

     Python for .NET preview 2. This gives you near-seamless integration
     with the .NET CLR. This package does not implement Python as a
     first-class CLR language. Rather, it is an integration of the C Python
     engine with the .NET runtime.
         <http://zope.org/Members/Brian/PythonNet/>

     Fredrik Lundh continues writing about the new modules in the Python 2.3
     standard library. Read about datetime, heapq, new encodings, and others.
         <http://effbot.org/zone/librarybook-py23.htm>

     pxdom 0.6, a stand-alone pure-Python DOM implementation and
     non-validating parser, supporting Level 3 Core, XML, Load and Save specs.
     PXTL 0.9, the Python XML Templating Language, a templating solution
     for producing XML, HTML and other text-based document types.
         <http://www.doxdesk.com/software/py/pxdom.html>
         <http://doxdesk.com/software/py/pxtl.html>


========================================================================
Everything Python-related you want is probably one or two clicks away in
these pages:

    Python.org's Python Language Website is the traditional
    center of Pythonia
        http://www.python.org
    Notice especially the master FAQ
        http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html

    PythonWare complements the digest you're reading with the
    daily python url
         http://www.pythonware.com/daily  
    Mygale is a news-gathering webcrawler that specializes in (new)
    World-Wide Web articles related to Python.
         http://www.awaretek.com/nowak/mygale.html 
    While cosmetically similar, Mygale and the Daily Python-URL
    are utterly different in their technologies and generally in
    their results.

    comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software.  Be
    sure to scan this newly-revitalized newsgroup at least weekly.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python.announce

    Brett Cannon continues the marvelous tradition established by 
    Andrew Kuchling and Michael Hudson of summarizing action on the
    python-dev mailing list once every other week.
	http://www.python.org/dev/summary/

    The Python Package Index catalogues packages.
        http://www.python.org/pypi/

    The somewhat older Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collects references
    to all sorts of Python resources.
        http://www.vex.net/~x/parnassus/   

    Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group
    mailing lists
        http://www.python.org/sigs/

    The Python Business Forum "further[s] the interests of companies
    that base their business on ... Python."
	http://www.python-in-business.org

    The Python Software Foundation has replaced the Python Consortium
    as an independent nexus of activity
        http://www.python.org/psf/

    Cetus does much of the same
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html

    Python FAQTS
        http://python.faqts.com/

    The old Python "To-Do List" now lives principally in a
    SourceForge reincarnation.
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse
        http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html
     
    The online Python Journal is posted at pythonjournal.cognizor.com.
    editor at pythonjournal.com and editor at pythonjournal.cognizor.com
    welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding
    of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work.

    *Py: the Journal of the Python Language*
        http://www.pyzine.com

    Archive probing tricks of the trade:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python&num=100
        http://groups.google.com/groups?meta=site%3Dgroups%26group%3Dcomp.lang.python.*

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
  http://www.ddj.com/topics/pythonurl/         
  http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html (dormant)
or
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python


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