Python-URL! - Weekly Python News and Links (December 30)
Jan 05, 2003, 23:00 (0 Talkback[s])
QOTW: "For my New Year's Resolution, I vow always to close my files
explicitly whenever I can, preferably with a tidy try/finally statement...
:-)" Peter Hansen
"It rather distresses me that no one appears to have taken the trouble yet
to index all the XML-Python resources in a convenient and unified way."
Cameron Laird [but see <URL: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/ >]
"I was going to say this was going to be a slow week, but you folks
surprised me. Happy holidays, everybody." Erik Max Francis
Discussion
A basic question about SyntaxErrors in what is seemingly trivial
code leads to the usually helpful troubleshooting mantras
(indenting, lack of trailing newlines, unterminated string
literals):
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=v0admabg5tsbe7%40corp.supernews.com
Tim Peters chimes in at the end of the long "Python vs. Java
garbage collection" thread (mentioned in last week's Python-URL!
digest), quoting Guido himself (back in 1992) about the guarantees
imposed by garbage collection and the calling of __del__ methods,
hopefully putting the subject to rest once and for all:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.1041028056.2027.python-list%40python.org
Michele Simionato gives us all a cute "cryptic" Christmas present:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-December/136082.html
Remember, to use properties, you need to inherit from object, as
Gonçalo Rodrigues reminds us:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=m9st0v42hqg68i1tni60oujs8rvh90qq6g%404ax.com
Peter Hansen reminds us the only way to kill a thread is to use
cooperation with the thread itself:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3E0F0985.3D4FF3C1%40engcorp.com
A question about the semantics of the changing division oeprators
(/ vs. //) leads to extremely precise and clear responses,
something we all need in the face of changing language semantics:
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.1041194195.2965.python-list%40python.org
Mike Meyer shows us how obtaining something often considered
central to functional programming -- currying -- is so easy to
achieve in Python:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-December/136538.html
Software
PyChecker 0.8.12 is released:
http://pychecker.sourceforge.net/
A new version, 1.5.5, of pygame has been released:
http://www.pygame.org/
Napyr (Not a Python Runtime) provides a setup of common Windows
DLLs, making dependence on a standalone Python installation less
of a requirement:
http://p-nand-q.com/e/napyr.html
Cog (Checkpointed Object Graph object database) provides
semitransparent persistence for large sets of interrelated Python
objects:
http://itamarst.org/software/cog/
EmPy, a Python templating system, now at version 2.2.4, provides
mailing lists which users can use to discuss EmPy related issues
with the author(s) and each other:
http://www.alcyone.com/pyos/empy/
imgSeek is a photo collection manager supporting thumbnailing and
searching, using a PyQT interface:
http://nieder.kit.net/imgseek/
Pynfo 0.6.0 is a major enhancement to an IRC bot written in
Python, using the Twisted framework, that supports network
bridging and basic "infobot" capabilities including googling, and
a plugin interface:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pynfo/
PyTraffic is an implementation of the board game Rush Hour:
http://alpha.luc.ac.be/Research/Algebra/Members/pytraffic/
========================================================================
Everything 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
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 newly-revitalized newsgroup at least 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 summarizing action on the
python-dev mailing list once every other week.
http://www.python.org/dev/summary/
http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/summaries/
http://www.amk.ca/python/dev
The Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collect 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 has replaced the Python Consortium
as an independent nexus of activity
http://www.python.org/psf/
Cetus does much of the same
http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html
Python FAQTS
http://python.faqts.com/
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@pythonjournal.com and editor@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
Tenth International Python Conference
http://www.python10.org
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
Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
E-mail to <Python-URL@phaseit.net> should get through.
To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning
(approximately), ask <claird@phaseit.net> to subscribe. Mention
"Python-URL!".
-- The Python-URL! Team--
Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.
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