Mailman 3 April 2010 - docs

Minor suggestion for "Curses Programming with Python"
by driscoll＠cs.wisc.edu 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

I was reading the page at http://docs.python.org/howto/curses.html, which contains the following paragraph: A word about the coordinate system used in curses: coordinates are always passed in the order y,x, and the top-left corner of a window is coordinate (0,0). This breaks a common convention for handling coordinates, where the x coordinate usually comes first. This is an unfortunate difference from most other computer applications, but its been part of curses since it was first written, and its too late to change things now. But there's one other case where (y,x) ordering is very common: elements of a matrix are almost always named by row before column (with the upper left at 0,0). Further, the curses screen in some sense is closer to a (rows x cols) matrix than it is to a regular coordinate field since the individual 'points' are so huge. I think it might be helpful to make this analogy. Something like the following: If it helps, you can think of the screen as a matrix instead of the Cartesian plane, and the coordinates as (row, column) rather than a reversed version of (x, y). Evan

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[issue8558] StringIO().truncate causes zero-bytes in getvalue()
by Antoine Pitrou 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

Antoine Pitrou <pitrou(a)free.fr> added the comment: This is a last-minute API change. truncate() was modified not to change the file position anymore. We should probably document it more explicitly. See the following subthread in python-dev: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2009-September/092127.html ---------- assignee: -> docs@python components: +Documentation nosy: +docs@python, pitrou _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue8558> _______________________________________

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subprocess.Popen missing info
by David Abrahams 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

The docs for subprocess.Popen are missing at least one piece of information that is crucial to using it for portable code. That is, on POSIX systems, the PATH environment variable is always used to look up directory-less executable names, but on Windows, PATH is only considered when shell=True. Please see http://bugs.python.org/issue8557 -- Dave Abrahams Meet me at BoostCon: http://www.boostcon.com BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com

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[issue8546] The parameter buffering in _pyio.open doesn't work the same as in the builtin open
by Patrick Sabin 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

New submission from Patrick Sabin <patricksabin(a)gmx.at>: As far as I understand the _pyio.open function should resemble the builtin open, but in case of the buffering parameter, it doesn't. The builtin version doesn't allow None as argument, but this is the default in the _pyio.open signature. I attached a patch, which changes the default value of the buffering parameter to -1, which is the default in the builtin version. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation, Library (Lib) files: change_pyio_open_buffering_parameter.diff keywords: patch messages: 104301 nosy: docs@python, pyfex priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: The parameter buffering in _pyio.open doesn't work the same as in the builtin open type: behavior versions: Python 3.1, Python 3.2, Python 3.3 Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file17103/change_pyio_open_buffering_parameter.diff _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue8546> _______________________________________

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Re: [docs] [pydotorg-www] Two problematic pages
by anatoly techtonik 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 5:00 AM, A.M. Kuchling <amk(a)amk.ca> wrote: > There are two pages that I'd like to get rid of, but am dithering about: > > * http://www.python.org/doc/newstyle/ claims: > > Unfortunately, new-style classes have not yet been integrated into > Python's standard documention. Fear not, however; many people have > worked to provide useful information on creating and using new-style > classes. > > Is this still true? Are the resources linked from that page still useful? CCed to docs. > * A lot of the ports on http://www.python.org/download/other/ are very > old. (2.1, 2.4, even 1.5.2, etc.). I think most people will just > search for "Python <OS name>" and not come to python.org to poke > around. Can we just drop the page completely? Very useful page. Converting to wiki is a good idea. > Now that I look at it, http://www.python.org/download/linux/ doesn't > really have a lot of content; maybe it can be deleted, too. It should be redirected to Wiki and Wiki expanded with information how to get the Python installed for their platform (Ubuntu/Debian), how to install newer Python (very actual for Debian). Describe Python environment on these platforms or provide relevant links. -- anatoly t.

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Small typo in Mutable Sequence Types documentation
by Darren Yin 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

Hi, This bug shows up here: http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#mutable-sequence-types When it quotes s.pop([i]) I think the correct syntax for the expression is s.pop(i) Is this a typo? Or am I just interpreting it wrongly? I drew my conclusions from some rudimentary testing of what works with a temporary list s I defined. ~Darren

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Python v2.6.5 documentation - search plug-in for Firefox
by Craig Barnes 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

Hello, I have found a minor issue on the Python 2.6.5 documentation Firefox search plug-in on the website. When you add the search plug-in for Firefox while browsing the Python 2.6.5 documentation, the search produces results for the dev/ branch which is 2.7b1 at time of writing. The error is in line 6 of the python.xml file which should read <os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://docs.python.org/search.html?q={searchTerms}&check_keywords=yes&a…"> it currently is: <os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://docs.python.org/dev/search.html?q={searchTerms}&check_keywords=y…"> Hope this helps Regards Craig Barnes

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Extra list comprehension example
by Ruud Althuizen 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

Hello, I was struggling to find an example of list comprehension for a specific situation. The current examples only show if you want to: - Use two loops concurently using non-dependent iterations - Swap values My situation is related to option 1: use one loop that depends on the other loop. I found one example[1] that makes obvious what I want to do (I had swapped the two loops while experimenting): [ expression for line in open('file.txt') for char in line.strip() ] I believe this would be an helpfull example to add to http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html#list-comprehensions 1: http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/nested-comprehensions/ -- Met vriendelijke groet, Ruud Althuizen - www.stack.nl - Unix commissie

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Re: [docs] Docs development entrypoint (Was: Mailing list dead pile and private lists)
by anatoly techtonik 25 Apr '10

25 Apr '10

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Georg Brandl <georg(a)python.org> wrote: >> docs-sig(a)python.org - non-intuitive development name, but it's >> documentation development group > > Non-intuitive or not, it is a SIG and therefore that name is the > right one. The problem that SIGs is a common name only in some subset of English or American culture. DEV is international. SIG abbreviation should be expanded on entrypoint pages to give new users a safe feeling of understanding without resorting to silly explanations or slang. >> 2. rename doc-sig@ to doc-dev@ (or docs-dev@?) > > As I said above, this change is not useful. Whatever it is, I can live with it as long as I am not forced to subscribe to YAML. =) But it is not really an argument. Arguments are either: 1. it is a well established name linked all over the web that people use 2. it is "inconvenient" to bother admins 3. -sig suffix is better than -dev, because ... 3.1. there are not many people subscribed and they would have to resubscribe (bad one) 3.2. people are lazy to remember the new name 3.3. people who actually DO stuff prefer it THIS way (perhaps the only good one) >> 3. merge various HTML pages (including mailman) into one/two >> entrypoint page and allow community update it >> 4. 3 obviously requires a Wiki page > > I agree that the doc-SIG pages are outdated. I will ask the SIG coordinator > what we should do with the old content, and then update the pages > accordingly. That's good. The bad part that it is probably seen by many, but to reports this I am alone. >> 5. add web posting interface with OAuth/OpenID support (Google Groups, >> anything else?) >> 6. add custom search form for doc development archives and docs >> (twisted has one for mailman) > > Those two are not specific to the docs list(s); you're going to have > to ask the postmasters if this is feasible. (I guess not.) If search link is possible then search form should be possible too http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-python >> (I still don't understand people who don't like web interfaces, but >> still firing email agent to fill their GUI email form fields that is >> no different from web-based except that fields are not autofilled >> using browser cookie). > > I don't understand what you mean, sorry. Mailing lists are called that > for a reason. I mean that ML is not the only way of communication and hybrid systems all already everywhere. Google Groups is one of the most popular. -- anatoly t.

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Re: [docs] [pydotorg-www] Docs development entrypoint (Was: Mailing list dead pile and private lists)
by skip＠pobox.com 25 Apr '10

25 Apr '10

>>>>> "anatoly" == anatoly techtonik <techtonik(a)gmail.com> writes: anatoly> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 3:37 PM, David Goodger <goodger(a)python.org> wrote: >> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 08:10, anatoly techtonik <techtonik(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> 2. rename doc-sig@ to doc-dev@ (or docs-dev@?) >> >> -1. That's change for the sake of change, cost without benefit. anatoly> That's change for consistency with python-dev@ Why on earth is that necessary? Can you not adapt to "sig" meaning "special interest group" and live with the status quo? S

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