Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jun 14)

[Peter Otten]

QOTW:  "Software doesn't work, and hardware is unreliable. If you wait for a
guarantee that nothing will go wrong, you'll end up being my age in a just a
few dozen short decades, but without the rollicking good memories that make
me such an agreeable old fart <wink>." - Tim Peters

"The first rule about __slots__ is: don't use them! OTOH the second rule (for
expert only) is: don't use them!" - Michele Simionato


    When you are switching from, say, Java you will probably be surprised that
    in Python p = 2**24036583 - 1 is all it takes to calculate the largest
    known prime number to date. Printing p will also work out of the box, but
    may take a bit long. Tim Peters sketches the algorithm Python uses to
    generate the decimal representation of an integer and provides code
    that can handle very large numbers efficiently.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=-N6dnc_ka_7JClHdRVn-gg%40comcast.com
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.925.1087163360.6949.python-list%40python.org
    
    Does Python have useless destructors? Michael P. Soulier's question
    spawns this week's large thread. The language specification makes no
    guarantees as to when or even whether the __del__() will be invoked.
    Martin von L=F6wis (hopefully) has all you need to know.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=40CC19D5.6040401%40v.loewis.de
    
    The common C++ idiom  "Resource acquisition is initialization" (RAII)
    does not work with Python. Duncan Booth proposes a potential alternative,
    Robert Brewer has a preliminary implementation.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.819.1086881457.6949.python-list%40python.org
    
    Tim Peters warns that code in the finally clause may not be executed
    under some circumstances.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.880.1086983444.6949.python-list%40python.org
    The paper by Stephen N. Freund and Mark P. Mitchell is here:
        http://www.cs.williams.edu/~freund/papers/02-lwl2.ps
    
    Chicago-area Pythoneers have not just general plans meeting monthly,
    and sharing technical knowledge, but using their Wiki to collect
    local success stories.
	http://www.chipy.org/

    Kamilche compares the speed of sets and dictionaries.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=889cbba0.0406091124.4c29126e%40posting.google.com
    
    Computers and human beings have different opinions how strings
    containing numbers shall be sorted. Conelly Barnes presents a fix.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.739.1086760690.6949.python-list%40python.org
    
    Did you ever try to search the python-devel mailing list?
    Seo Sanghyeon has a tip that does not involve Google.
        http://search.gmane.org/search.php?query=gmane+search&email=&group=gmane.comp.python.devel&sort=date 
    

========================================================================
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
    marvelous 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 newsgroup 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 intelligently 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 (PSF) has replaced the Python
    Consortium as an independent nexus of activity.  It has official
    responsibility for Python's development and maintenance. 
        http://www.python.org/psf/
    Among the ways you can support PSF is with a donation.
        http://www.python.org/psf/donate.html

    Cetus collects Python hyperlinks.
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html

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

    The Cookbook is a collaborative effort to capture useful and
    interesting recipes.
	http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python

    Among several Python-oriented RSS/RDF feeds available are
	http://www.python.org/channews.rdf
	http://bootleg-rss.g-blog.net/pythonware_com_daily.pcgi
	http://python.de/backend.php
    For more, see
	http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=python&ShowStatus=all
    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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