My Python annoyances

[kyosohma at gmail.com]

On May 3, 9:27 am, Paul Boddie <p... at boddie.org.uk> wrote:
> On 3 Mai, 15:49, Ben Collver <coll... at peak.org> wrote:
>
> > I rewrote my code in Python and I found myself running into many of the
> > same hassles that I run into with other languages: inaccurate and
> > incomplete documentation, a maze of little platform-specific quirks to
> > work around in the base classes, and a macho community of users.
>
> I'm sorry to hear about that. If by "macho" you mean people who insist
> that things are good enough as they are, and that newcomers should
> themselves adapt to whatever they may discover, instead of things
> being improved so that they are more intuitive and reliable for
> newcomers and experienced developers alike, then I'd certainly be
> interested in undermining that culture.
>
> > The python web site recommended Dive Into Python, so I learned by
> > reading that.  It has several examples that don't work because the
> > Python base classes have changed behavior.  I should have taken that as
> > lesson.
>
> Really Dive Into Python should be a sufficient guide, and it was
> perhaps the best introduction to the language when it was written. It
> is very unfortunate that the language has changed in a number of ways
> (and exhibits continued change) whilst effort into documenting what is
> already there remains neglected amongst the people making all the
> changes.
>
> > I tried to write portable Python code.  The zlib CRC function returned
> > different results on architectures between 32 bit and 64 bit
> > architectures.  I filed a bug report.  It was closed, without a comment
> > from the person who closed it.  I get the unspoken message: bug reports
> > are not welcome.
>
> Can you provide the bug identifier? Bug reports are generally welcome,
> and despite complaints about patch reviews, I've found people
> reviewing things I've submitted.
>
> > I installed Cygwin on a Windows machine.  I try to quit from an
> > interactive Python session.  It tells me that on my platform, I must
> > press Control-Z to exit.  I press Control-Z and it makes Python a
> > background process.
>
> Yes, Ctrl-Z exits Python in the standard Windows edition. Since Cygwin
> provides a POSIX-like environment, Ctrl-D should be used instead. If
> the documentation is wrong, a bug report or patch should be filed
> against the software.
>
> > I tried to use the XML.minidom.  The documentation here is minimal as
> > well.  So I read up on other web sites.  It turns out that the interface
> > has changed quite a bit from the documentation I found on other web
> > sites.  Where are the much loved docstrings?  In 2.3 minidom, they are
> > sparse and cryptic.
>
> I really don't know what to say about the PyXML/xmlcore situation. I
> don't use ElementTree and hardly use PyXML or minidom, but something
> really should have been done about the maintenance of the established
> libraries rather than declaring them as legacy items and pretending
> that they don't exist.
>
> > Between 2.4 and 2.5, tempfile returns a different type of object.  My
> > code cannot have a single test, it has check for type(obj) == file or
> > obj.__class__ == tempfile._TemporaryFileWrapper.
>
> Try using isinstance or relying on "deeper" knowledge of how the
> object will be used.
>
> > I decided to make a tkinter front-end for a Python program.  I decided
> > to go with tkinter because it is included with many Python
> > installations, so it maximizes the chance for my program to run out of
> > the box.
>
> > The tkinter documentation on the Python site mainly consists of loose
> > notes and links to other sites.  The documentation on other sites is
> > great, if you already know how to use tkinter.  I ran into bugs in
> > TkAqua which make the grid layout unusable for me.  So I will need to
> > ask potential users to install Xcode, X11, and mac ports, if they want
> > to run my program.
>
> Take a look at the python.org Wiki for links to other resources on
> Tkinter:
>
> http://wiki.python.org/moin/TkInter
>
> Or consider other graphical frameworks:
>
> http://wiki.python.org/moin/GuiProgramming
>
> > In short, there is plenty of room for improvement.  Admittedly these are
> > not problems with the language definition.  But I downloaded a Python
> > distribution, and the problems are Python specific.
>
> My opinions, already expressed, include the observation that the core
> development community is more interested in extending the language
> than in strengthening the standard library (and its documentation). It
> should be noted that the proposed standard library reorganisation,
> which is a very conservative affair, has actually been postponed until
> after the release of Python 3.0a1 according to a message I read
> recently. And yet, if you read people's lists about what they "hate"
> about Python (amongst actual users of Python), guess which thing
> almost always comes up?
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22things+I+hate+about+Python%22
>
> Paul

I agree with Paul and Ben. The Docs need some help. Some are excellent
and others are hosed because of changes to the language. I started
with Tkinter, but quickly got frustrated with the lack of
documentation or screwy out-dated docs. What really annoys me is that
some very good authors state that Tkinter has excellent docs and
multiple published books. I found one book by Grayson that is 7 years
old. So I switched to wxPython.

wxPython has a better user group and better docs. Unfortunately, they
also have quite a few man pages, as do other external modules and man
pages typically make my eyes swim.

The closest thing to real docs by a real person for Python is Lundh's
site: http://effbot.org/librarybook/

Fortunately, since Python is so easy, some of this can be overcome.

Mike