Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Nov 10)

Wed Nov 10 12:23:51 EST 2004

QOTW: "I find it hard to believe nobody has tried this yet, unless it's
the case that those who know how to do it also know that it's actually
not possible for some reason..." -- Peter Hansen
    http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249134.html

"Some people may actually want to drink poisoned kool-aid and join the
great wise extraterrestrials on their comet in the skies."  -- Alex Martelli
responding to the idea that some programmers may actually want "a" + 10 == 10.
    http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249191.html

    Zunbeltz Izaola has a problem passing an exception between threads in a
    wxPython application.  A couple different approaches are offered: custom
    events and using a queue to store the traceback. Peter Hansen suggests a
    possible avenue using ctypes, but quickly becomes mired in an argument
    with himself before Thomas Heller finally rescues him:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248979.html

    BJörn Lindqvist wonders why wxPython isn't in the standard library.
    Roger Binns and others offer their insight. Amazingly not one person is
    flamed during the exchange and a potentially endless thread ends as
    suddenly as it began:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249562.html

    Wolfgang Keller wonders about using JMS from CPython via JPype.  David
    Morgenthaler offers a solution which appears to impress Wolfgang. I
    don't know anything about this, so draw your own conclusions here about
    whether David's example is truly amazing or Wolfgang is simply easily
    impressed:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248987.html

    Vinay Sajip announces a new configuration module which prompts some
    discussion over file formats are best expressed in Python itself or a
    specialized language:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249133.html

    The Eternal Squire tables PEP 336 which suggests making None callable.
    Yes, that's his name:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249224.html

    Michele Simionato offers a string-interpolation recipe using
    string.Template from Python 2.4:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249237.html
    More about string.Template: 
        http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/whatsnew/node5.html
        http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/304004

    Maurice LING wonders why Python is slower than Java. This turns into a
    discussion on netiquette, smart questions and the general atmosphere of
    [in]tolerance on c.l.py:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249413.html

    Gabriel Zachmann asks about a generic way to access C++ libraries from
    Python. The consensus doesn't sound promising:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249513.html

    Alan Gauld announces a new "web-tutor for beginners".  No announcement
    has yet been made regarding a web-tutor for experts:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249730.html
        http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

    Mike Thompson is puzzled by interning strings which leads to some
    enlightening exposition by Peter Otten, et al, on how Python chooses to
    intern strings and how users can utilize this functionality in their own
    code:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249734.html

    syd wonders about a way to return a subset from a large list of
    instances of similar classes.  A couple different solutions are offered
    and the discussion turns to new- versus old-style classes:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248886.html

    Stephen Ferg takes on the twice-yearly task of reminding everyone that
    Python is doomed without a CPAN equivalent, meets with the ritual
    retorts and everyone eventually moves on, satisfied that we need not
    discuss this again until next April:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248934.html

    Gabriel Zachmann starts what appears to be the longest thread of the
    week with a discussion on the definition of strong/weak typing.  In
    typical c.l.py fashion, supercooled fluids are offered as a possible
    explanation:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248915.html

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

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