Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Sep 15)

[Raymond Hettinger]

QOTW:  "Of course it's still an ugly idiom. But there's a distinction between
ugly-but-works and ugly-and-wrong."  -- Michael Chermside commenting on one of
the standard ways to simulate an if-then-else expression.

"This is the nature of Usenet and threaded discussions, where one person makes
several comments, some less on-topic that the rest, and another person picks up
on those less on-topic comments and ignores the more on-topic ones.  If
everyone posted only responses which *strictly* addressed the original
question, Usenet would be very boring indeed." -- Peter Hansen on why
*his* post didn't match the subject line for the original question.

Discussion
----------
    Ubaidullah Nubar innocently asks about the relative merits of GUI
    frameworks on each operating system.  The resulting thread is full
    of informative comparisons and hard won experience:
	<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=ae4968f5cffe6bfc>

    Dinu Gherman writes about EmPy for *Linux Magazine*:
	<http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/35/EmPy_Wiki.pdf>

    John Roth suggests a possible reason that Python and C# don't have Java-
    style Checked Expressions:
	<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=27e1c8e784a1c80>

    Ron Stephens offers up his askMerlin program as example code for newbies
    and as an open application that allows them to graft on parts of their
    own construction.  The effort is notable for re-invigorating the CP4E
    project, Computer Programming for Everyone:
	<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=26115a570df7854e>

    Randy Ito proposes a group effort to create Macromedia Flash Remoting
    servers in Python:
	<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=937778308888502d>

    Erik Lechak posts a code snippet for a less than mission critical
    application, downloading TV listings:
	<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=6bdb627ac7220744>

    Last week, Skip Montanaro set up a wiki so that the community can
    participate in creating a glossary of key python terminology.  It is
    already evolving to cover many core concepts for understanding Python:
        <http://manatee.mojam.com/python-glossary>

    This week's ideas for changing the language:
	* the ternary operator (if-then-else expression) never seems to die
  
Releases
--------
    CUTE 0.2 - QT and Scintilla based code editor, scriptable with python
	<http://cute.sourceforge.net>

    SalStat 20030911 - Python/wxPython application for statistical analysis
	<http://salstat.sunsite.dk>

    hashtar 0.1 - archival encryption to corruptible media
	<http://nitace.bsd.uchicago.edu:8080/hashtar>

    Python Computer Graphics Kit v1.0.1 - collection of Python modules for
	creating 3D computer graphics images
	<http://cgkit.sourceforge.net>

    Spe 0.1.6 - Python IDE with support for Blender
	<http://spe.pycs.net>

    EmPy 3.1 - system for embedding Python expressions and statements in
	template text
	<http://www.alcyone.com/software/empy/>

    
========================================================================
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


Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
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