Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jul 7)
Irmen de Jong
irmen at -NOSPAM-REMOVETHIS-xs4all.nl
Mon Jul 7 08:02:34 EDT 2003
QOTW: "Confronting the Martellibot is like flirting with an encyclopedia,
I'd rather not do it myself, but I respect those who do, because it
produces knowledge." -- Anton Vredegoor
"Python and Java are not diametrically opposed religions that must fight
to the death in jihad, despite the existence of loonies favoring exactly
that. They solve different problems; sometimes in similar ways, sometimes
not." -- Mark Hughes
Discussion
----------
Michael Chermside explains what assignment in Python means, and how
this conflicts with a proposed change of the assignment 'operator'.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.1057084443.18247.python-list@python.org>
Bengt Richter adds another twist to this discussion about overloading
the assignment operator (which is a statement, really).
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=bdve6b$2nq$0@216.39.172.122>
Geoff Howland discusses issues related to the use of Python
executables for source code secrecy, instead of speed increase.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=82j7gv8b8sr7nejhunf32hb3oitc08s4pa@4ax.com>
Erik Max Francis explains the difference in output of printing an
element as part of a list and printing the element itself.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=3F0669B5.679FB505@alcyone.com>
Mirko Zeibig shows that "bound method" objects can be used for
callback functions, or "functors".
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=slrnbg55ts.c27.mirko-lists@zeibig.net>
Erwin Andreasen explains that buffering is why a python script with
multiple threads can seem to execute the same 'print' multiple times.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=87vfulrkuz.fsf@andreasen.org>
David Bolen adds insight to the question "when is unit-testing bad?",
regarding elements that we think are hard to unit-test.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=u1xx83hey.fsf@fitlinxx.com>
Bengt Richter shows how to use zip to transpose a list to get a
list of columns (apparently inspired by a Martellibot post).
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=bdspmf$leq$0@216.39.172.122>
Tkinspect is a kind of debugger that allows one to diagnose a Tkinter
process "from the outside".
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/tkinspect>
Announcements
-------------
Python 2.3beta2, the second beta release of Python 2.3.
<http://www.python.org/2.3/>
Pyro 3.3 beta, an advanced and powerful Distributed Object
Technology system written entirely in Python.
<http://pyro.sourceforge.net/>
4Suite 1.0a3, a comprehensive platform for XML and RDF processing,
with base libraries and a server framework.
<ftp://ftp.4suite.org/pub/4Suite/>
DNSpython 1.0.0, a DNS toolkit for Python.
<http://www.dnspython.org/>
Eric 3.2, a full featured Python IDE that is written in PyQt using the
QScintilla editor widget.
<http://www.die-offenbachs.de/detlev/eric3.html>
PyKota 1.12, a complete Print Quota and Accounting Software Solution
for CUPS and LPRng.
<http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/PyKota/action_Presentation>
PyQt 3.7, a comprehensive set of Python bindings for Trolltech's
Qt GUI toolkit.
<http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/>
PyRex 0.8.1, a language for writing Python extension modules.
<http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg/python/Pyrex/>
SQLObject 0.4, SQLObject is an object-relational mapper supporting
Postgres, MySQL, and SQLite.
<http://sqlobject.org>
Scratchy 0.6, an Apache log parser and HTML report generator.
<http://scratchy.sourceforge.net/>
Announcements
-------------
PyRex 0.8, a language for writing Python extension modules.
<http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg/python/Pyrex/>
M2Crypto 0.11, a crypto and SSL toolkit for Python.
<http://www.post1.com/home/ngps/m2>
PythonCAD 8th release, a CAD package written in Python.
<http://www.pythoncad.org/>
DocUtils 0.3, a system for processing plaintext documentation
(reStructuredText markup).
<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/>
Scratchy 0.4, an Apache log parser and HTML report generator.
<http://scratchy.sourceforge.net/>
ClientForm 0.0.10 and 0.1.3a, a Python module for handling
HTML forms on the client.
<http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/ClientForm/>
SCons 0.90, a software construction tool (build tool, or make tool).
<http://www.scons.org/>
Twisted 1.0.6, an event-driven networking framework for server
and client applications.
<http://www.twistedmatrix.com/>
David Mertz, our own Lulu, presents Twisted to a wider audience.
<http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-twist1.html>
TTFQuery 0.2.4, builds on the FontTools module to allow you
to query TTF font-files for metadata and glyph outlines.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/ttfquery/>
========================================================================
Everything 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:
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or
http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python
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