Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jun 22)

Wed Jun 22 12:08:03 EDT 2005

QOTW: "Python is more concerned with making it easy to write good programs
than difficult to write bad ones." - Steve Holden

"Scientists build so that they can learn. Programmers and engineers learn
so that they can build." - Magnus Lycka

"It happens that old Java programmers make one module per class when they
start using Python. That's more or less equivalent of never using more
than 8.3 characters in filenames in modern operating systems, or to make
a detour on your way to work because there used to be a fence blocking the
shortest way a long time ago." - Magnus Lycka

    Python doesn't currently have a case or switch statement. Case blocks
    are easily simulated with if, elif, and else, but would Python's
    readability benefit from having it built in?:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/29e45afc78adcd15

    A Podcast worth listening to at last. Guido speaks on Python's history
    and community:
        http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail545.html
        http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail559.html

    If your class implements __eq__ but not __ne__, (a = b) does not imply
    !(a != b). If this something that should be fixed, or just a "gotcha"?
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f6e0986b2c0f01c0

    John Machin instructively analyzes several of Excel's defects as a
    data-management vehicle, obliquely highlighting Python's Zen.  Tim
    Roberts follows up with a small but potentially crucial addendum
    pertinent, among others, to those who deal with USA "zip codes":
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/index/browse_frm/thread/d14b13c8bc6e8515/

    Recent (unreleased) work on distutils allows you to automatically
    upload packages to PyPI:
        http://www.amk.ca/diary/archives/003937.html

    Text files and line endings; Python helps you out on Windows, which can
    be a little confusing:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/2d3f61b949bca0e9

    Kalle wants to protect his instance attributes. He's warned off the
    idea, but at the same time, alex23 demonstrates an interesting way of
    doing it using properties():
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/9f7c29fed95d7586

    Creating a Python iterator by wrapping any callable:
        http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2005/06/14/python-iterators-and-sentinel-values/

    Richard Lewis wants resumable exceptions. Python doesn't have them,
    but Peter Hansen shows him how to achieve what he wants, and Willem
    shows us how resumable exceptions work in Lisp:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e3dafce228dd4258

    Jan Danielsson is confused about the difference between __str__ and
    __repr__, and what they are both for:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b37f1e3fae1154d6

    The Kamaelia Framework; communicating with and linking Python generators:
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp113.shtml

    Ron Adams proposes an "also" block to be executed if a "for" loop's
    "else" block isn't, and more controversially, that the "else" block's
    meaning be switched:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b15de260c5ca02e0

    How you convince your marketing drones that switching from Python to
    Java would be A Bad Thing?
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/5b6d1ff54640e9b1

    Why should an ambitious 14-year-old look at Python? (And why source-code
    hiding is a waste of time.)
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/107a4da1dd45b915

========================================================================
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.

    For far, FAR more Python reading than any one mind should
    absorb, much of it quite interesting, several pages index
    much of the universe of Pybloggers.
	http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/PythonProgrammersWeblog
        http://www.planetpython.org/
        http://mechanicalcat.net/pyblagg.html

    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

    Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer continue the marvelous
    tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson and Brett
    Cannon 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.

    del.icio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary.
    It already aggregates quite a bit of Python intelligence.
        http://del.icio.us/tag/python

    *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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