Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Oct 4)

Mon Oct 4 17:59:19 EDT 2004

QOTW:  "...then we get a signal through, then various miracles occur, and
the conclusion is, 'You mean it only takes thirteen lines of code to do
that?  Our software folks said it's not possible.'   
    Cameron Laird, on his typical experience with industrial automation projects

"In fact what you'd really like is a 'resumption' object created by raising
the exception, that you can pass control to at any time, sort of like
yielding from a generator.  Maybe you're getting deja vu now, since this is
basically what Stackless Python continuations were."
    Paul Rubin, on the idea of resumable exceptions

    Marco Aschwanden and others weigh the virtues of the commercial Python
    IDEs WingIDE and Komodo.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.3996.1096354841.5135.python-list%40python.org

    Thomas wonders about the speed of getting a list of directories via
    os.listdir() and os.path.isdir(), and gets suggestions for interesting
    platform specific optimizations.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=ikrfl05b77p2jlbrp3kehvf5o3u8jp35od%404ax.com

    Jacek Generowicz is looking for a metaclass that would allow
    introducing several methods with the same name in a class, spawning a
    long and educational thread about metaclasses and learning a simpler
    way of achieving the goal using the upcoming decorator syntax.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=tyfekkoeyk2.fsf%40pcepsft001.cern.ch

    Bishara Gabriel publishes a proposal aiming to introduce Python and
    object oriented approach to the realm of social sciences.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.4083.1096472628.5135.python-list%40python.org

    Srijit Kumar Bhadra posts a version of the same program using
    PythonNet, IronPython and Boo, showcasing the similarity in the way
    code is written.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=221d8dbe.0409302041.3798265d%40posting.google.com

    Connelly Barnes has written "htmldata", a module that can convert html
    documents to basic Python data structures and back.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.4170.1096616953.5135.python-list%40python.org

    Martin Maney relays information about the Python slant of Ubuntu,
    the Debian-derivative that has been gathering lots of users and
    attention even before the official release.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=cjmc42%24420%241%40wheel2.two14.net

    Wolfgang Keller can't find the libraries he needs for industrial
    control applications. A discussion about the sorry state of software
    for industrial control in general, and the suitability of Python in
    particular ensues. People actually seem to have plans for improving
    the situation.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=joztfie8fghq.fdfzxi3urxbg%24.dlg%4040tude.net

    Alia Khouri needs to "sell" Python to his company.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=40a939c9.0410021235.623eb6f6%40posting.google.com

    Andrew Kuchling would like to see the focus of Python development
    moving away from hacking the interpreter and towards improving the
    standard library. 
        http://www.amk.ca/diary/archives/cat_python.html#003382

    Paul Rubin, Nick Craig-Wood, et al. exhibit experts' thoughts on
    sorting and memory use.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=left&th=b73a0c321d8c4c5b

    Larry Bates argues that we shouldn't curtail the life of
    "debugging" code.  Steve Holden, Ian Parker, and others provide
    examples, and consider concrete uses of assert() and __debug__.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=left&th=aaf241b357c6f1b

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

    Python Success Stories--from air-traffic control to on-line
    match-making--can inspire you or decision-makers to whom you're
    subject with a vision of what the language makes practical.
        http://www.pythonology.com/success

    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

    Kurt B. Kaiser publishes a weekly report on faults and patches.
        http://www.google.com/groups?as_usubject=weekly%20python%20patch

    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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