Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jul 28)
Irmen de Jong
python-url at phaseit.net
Mon Jul 28 05:19:45 EDT 2003
QOTW: "What's the reason for having two symbols [!= and <>] mean the same
thing? Hysterical raisins. Python originally used only '<>'. C
programmers whined about that, so Python added '!=' too. But Python code
already used '<>', so it was too late to get rid of that one. '<>' was
deprecated instead. That's a computer science term usually meaning it's
like a mentally disturbed uncle: we won't kill it, but we won't talk about
it either <wink>. The good news is that Guido has become more hardened to
whining over the centures since then." -- Tim Peters
"As they say, science advances, funeral by funeral."
-- Marc Wilson
Discussion
----------
Raymond Hettinger intrigues with the third episode of a series of
mysterious Python puzzles.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=tH5Ta.24164$7O.4744@nwrdny01.gnilink.net>
Paul Rubin proposes a language extension to deal with closing files
in a nice way.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=7xhe5b82ip.fsf%40ruckus.brouhaha.com>
While the original question was about scripting Paint Shop Pro
Duncan Booth shows how easy it is to write text in an image
by using PIL.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=Xns93C2B04C1DD91duncanrcpcouk@127.0.0.1>
Steven Taschuk discusses several ways to implement Singletons in Python.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.1058723911.12956.python-list@python.org>
Raymond St. Marie writes something that I'm not sure of what it is,
but it is funny nonetheless.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=20030726235931.05032.00000547@mb-m26.aol.com>
Chris Perkins wrote a checkable iterator, for when you need to
know when an iterator is exhausted.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=45228044.0307211220.7590d7e9@posting.google.com>
Raymond Hettinger argues that a new syntax to create Sets is not needed.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=wKEUa.4422$AO6.252@nwrdny02.gnilink.net>
Bengt Richter gives a detailed analysis and example code for a
genric 'namespace' type to store variables in.
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=bfutsf$flc$0@216.39.172.122>
A possible way to help you finding errors in your Python programs is by
listing all identifiers that are used. Bengt Richter wrote a little program
that does just this (mind the correction in the follow-up message).
<http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=nl&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=bfsn0b%24htm%240%40216.39.172.122&rnum=14>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=nl&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=bfsqrs%24q1g%240%40216.39.172.122>
Announcements
-------------
It was a busy week, last week!
Guido van Rossum is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal.
<http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0%2c%2cSB105874358077089900-H9jeoNplal2op2mZYCIb6aAm5%2c00.html>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=4868482a.0307211318.8f2e6d0@posting.google.com>
Bruce Eckel talks with Bill Venners about how Python's minimal finger
typing allows programmers to focus on the task, not the tool, generating
a productivity that makes more projects feasible.
<http://www.artima.com/intv/tipping.html>
Python 2.3 release candidate 2, the second and last release candidate
for Python 2.3 This will become Python 2.3 final if no new major bugs
are found this week.
<http://www.python.org/2.3/>
A binary installer for MacPython-2.3rc2 for Mac OS X 10.2:
<http://www.cwi.nl/ftp/jack/python/mac/MacPython-OSX-2.3rc2-3.dmg>
PythonD 2.2.1 Release 2.0, a 32-bit, multi-threaded, networking- and
OpenGL-enabled Python interpreter for DOS and Windows
<http://members.lycos.co.uk/bdeck/pythond.htm>
KirbyBase is a simple, pure-python, flat-file database management
system ...
<http://www.netpromi.com/kirbybase.html>
Epydoc 2.0, a tool for generating API documentation for Python modules,
based on their docstrings.
<http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/>
Aap's 1.0 release is not only "the first stable version of this
powerful build tool", but offers the potential of real money
for interested developers.
<http://www.a-a-p.org/>
py2exe 0.4.1, is a distutils extension to convert python scripts into
windows exe-files (plus a few dlls), able to run on computers without
requiring a python installation.
<http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/py2exe/>
The SciPy '03 Workshop on Scientific Computing with Python is being held
at Cal Tech again this year. It is a two day workshop held September
11-12 in Pasadena, CA.
<http://www.scipy.org/site_content/scipy03>
WebTK 0.alpha3, a Python framework using Twisted as its underlying
Web server, allowing webmasters to develop websites like any classic
GUI software.
<http://www.webtk.org/>
Leo 3.12, an outlining editor/browser/organizer for programmers.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/leo/>
numarray 0.6, an array processing extension supporting records,
memory mapping, and computational capabilities.
<http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray>
CUTE 0.1.6, a Qt and Scintilla based text editor which can be
easily extended using python.
<http://cute.sf.net>
SciParam 1.0.0 is a Python package to easily add additional quality
control for entering scientific parameters in wxPython-based user
interfaces.
<http://great-er.intevation.org/sciparam/>
WordUtils 0.7.0, pure-Python objects related to word searching
and matching.
<http://cedar-solutions.com/software/wordutils/>
Fnorb 1.3, a pure-Python CORBA implementation.
<http://fnorb.sourceforge.net/>
cx_Freeze 2.1, a set of utilities for freezing Python scripts into
executables. cx_OracleDBATools 1.2 and cx_OracleTools 7.1, a set of
Python scripts that handle Oracle tasks in a cross platform manner.
<http://starship.python.net/crew/atuining/>
imgv 2.8.6, a cross-platform image viewer written entirely in Python,
using Pygame.
<http://imgv.sourceforge.net/>
pynum2word-0.1, translate numbers into words in different languages.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/pynum2word/>
========================================================================
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:
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
Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
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