Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Mar 28)

[Cameron Laird]

QOTW:  "I think the best way of lobbying for Python adoption is to write
good software with Python." -- Jarek Zgoda

"The biggest problem I have now is convincing people that just because
something's not already in the standard library doesn't mean it belongs
there." -- Guido van Rossum, paraphrased by John Belmonte


    So far, over 320 have appeared for PyCon, currently in progress.
	http://www.sauria.com/~twl/conferences/pycon2004/
	http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/schedule.html

    Prothon justly dominated the week's discussion.  It's hard to
    summarize all the valuable insights illuminated
	http://groups.google.com/groups?q=prothon+group:comp.lang.python*
    Note the recurring attention to whether metaclasses are a symptom
    of health, and the path from there back to
	http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-pymeta2/
    as well as Michele Simoniato's new real-life example
	http://groups.google.com/groups?th=ab312bd057b6e9c

    BitTorrent's probably the most widely-used Python program
	http://altis.pycs.net/2004/03/24.html#a105

    How does one scale?  Hung Jung Lu presents a tour de force based
    on a novel axiomatization of "all human intellectual
    activities", and proceeds through a remarkable density of apt
    apothegms ("focus ... on how to make your system maintainable")
    to the conclusion that Python's purity and metaprogrammability
    make it "good but still not good enough"
        http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=left&th=abdc11f026b3e9bd
    Other highlights of the same attention to programming in the
    large include Bill Rubinstein's testimony on deep practical
    testing, and Stefan Axelsson's that there's a lot more to
    typing systems than C++ (for example) offers.  Phil Pfeiffer
    presents important evidence on how far from "good enough" Python
    is
	http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/papers/8/Twelve%20Thousand%20Test%20Cases%20and%20Counting.htm
    One way to enhance Pythonian engineering is with advanced tools
    such as PyNSource, a "UML reverse engineering and modelling"
    application
	http://www.atug.com/andypatterns/pynsource.htm
    PyNSource has much of the "industrial strength" PyReverse, Boa,
    and PyUt lack.  Yet another breakthrough in scalability is 
    doctest, most recently explained by Tim Peters and Jim Fulton
    in their PyCon presentation
	http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/papers/4/PyCon2004DocTestUnit/

    Christian von Essen breaks down the "how do I #include?"
    question into recipes which threaten newcomers minimally
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=5fd9f24976eb836f
    One step farther, and they've arrived at
	http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=left&th=5ac63bb4fb20cb3c

    ZODB for complete beginners
	http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=23413

    We deal with texts, so it's always timely to learn from George
    A. Miller and colleagues
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=fc91898a.0403250748.5ceb5a41%40posting.google.com

    What do Python and AppleScript have to do with each other?
    Mathieu Fenniak, Hamish Sanderson, and others know
	http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=left&th=52107f826d13ccad


========================================================================
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.*

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  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python


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