Mailman 3 October 1999 - Python-announce-list

PyAmulet 0.1
by Paul Sokolovsky Oct. 31, 1999

Oct. 31, 1999

Hello python-announce-list, Alpha version of PyAmulet, new module for the Amulet GUI toolkit, is available. This version is made for OpenAmulet, newly maintained, supported and developed version by volunteers. You may read more about OpenAmulet below. As for Python, it is ideal language to be bound with this dynamic, flexible toolkit. (As an example, C++ code below rewritten in python: # Create an green rectangle r=Am.Rectangle(FILL_STYLE=Am.Green); # Cast magic spell upon it: # "Do … [View More]Animate!" r.append(Am.Move_Grow_Interactor()) # after this, rectangle on screen can be dragged with mouse ) OpenAmulet homepage: http://www.openip.org PyAmulet homepage: http://www.openip.org/html/oa_pyamulet.html (sources and win32 binaries) Binary of OpenAmulet dll (needed for win32 bin PyAmulet): http://www.openip.org/oa/openamulet4.3-devel-mingw32-bin.zip To be more informative, some kind of blurb (somewhat lengthy and advocatic, sorry): ============= OpenAmulet, free cross-platform GUI Toolkit version 4.3 ------------------------------------------------------- Why yet another GUI toolkit? ---------------------------- First of all, it's not yet another GUI toolkit, it's *the* GUI toolkit. OpenAmulet is based on previous work of Amulet project (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~amulet/) held by User Interface Software Group in the Human Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (Brad A. Myers, Ellen Borison, Alan Ferrency, Rich McDaniel, Robert C. Miller, Andrew Faulring, Bruce D. Kyle, Patrick Doane, Andy Mickish, Alex Klimovitski). Amulet is their second toolkit, the C++ redesign of Garnet, written in Lisp and being classical example of nice and functional design. One of the intentions of writing Amulet in C++ was popularizing ideas not available to large audience and pushing it to production needs, in addition to research and educational ones. What are distinguishing features? --------------------------------- Briefly, OpenAmulet utilises Prototype-Instance (vs Class-Object) object system, uses Constraints as the means to maintain system's state and actions, and provides detached behaviour-oriented intercation model. More specifically, OpenAmulet emphasizes data-oriented programming. While "classical" (or, precisely, C++'s) object design preaches data hiding and interfacing via methods, Amulet has it "upside-down": all interfacing held via object's properties, and methods has only auxillary, system-internal role. Amulet has means to support such view of the world: * Prototype-instance object model Class-object model distinguishes two kinds of entities: 'classes', which can be instantiated, but not used, and 'objects' with opposite features. Prototype-instance approach doesn't have this distinction: any object can be both used as entity ready for processing and for instantiation of subobjects. Hence, class-object model is just constrained form of prototype-instance model, having stipulation above. Of course, Amulet object system is fully dynamic, allowing creation of new types of objects at runtime. * Demons and constraints How is it possible to interface via data? That's because it's possible to watch some object properties (or slots) and act upon changes. Low-level mechanism for this is demons. They are supposed to be eager and low-latency. For example, when size/position of graphical object changes, attached demons queue changing region for update. More high-level notion is constraint. Ideally constraints are mathematical equations, though may have side effects. With constraints slots of different objects can be linked in some way, for example top of one button may be equated to bottom of other. Afterwards, this relation is maintained automatically by system: wherewhere second button moved, first will be under it. Many current systems support constraints in ad hoc manner. For example, Tk's power to build quickly decent interfaces with pack is essentially stating (high-level) constraints on widgets. wxWindows' constraints are simplier and less amazing. What distinguishes Amulet here is fully generalized constraint support. Constraints can do anything (even loops are tried to be converged) on anything. Using ad hoc methods may give some benefits in some cases, for example, for example, laying out dialog with Amulet constraints is more verbose than with Tk's packs, but you can do things just not possible with Tk. * Behaviourial interaction model Contemplating evolution of GUI user-interaction techiques, following scale may be drawn: - (back to [your favorite 8-bit box] times) No interaction model Your code is mess with no obvious destinction with user-event handling and other code - MS Windows' message loop For each large-scaled entity (top-level window) you have "message procedure" which recieves all events (all they low-level) happening in that entity. Then you wonder to which lesser part it relates and act on that, if needed. - GTK, wxWindows, etc. event handlers, signals, maps, etc. each user-interactible object has bunch of (relatively low-level) events which may occur to it. Means to attach handler to needed event is provided. Handlers are independent and don't put burden on them. - Amulet's Interactors No usual graphic Amulet object has ability to interact with user. Interaction is supported by separate, external subsystem, by entities called 'Interactors' (of course, that's usual Amulet objects). Interactors function in high-level event terms, or behaviours. For example, there interactors for Selecting, Moving, Growing objects, Text-editing, etc. Low-level events, such as button- or key-press still handled in unified manner. Amulet widgets have interactors already attached. Behaviourial model means that it is very easy and clean to program highly interactive, direct-manipulation interfaces. E.g.: // Create an green rectangle Am_Object r=Am_Rectangle.Create().Set(Am_FILL_STYLE,Am_Green); // Cast magic spell upon it: // "Do Animate!" r.Add_Part(Am_Move_Grow_Interactor.Create()) // after this, rectangle on screen can be dragged with mouse What's more? ---------- Many, many more ;-) Crossplaformedness for X,Win32,Mac is worth immediate note. What's not? ----------- By current standards OpenAmulet has poor widgets set, lacking such things as trees/outlines, splitpanels, tabbed dialogs, etc. Where? ------ Latest sources, binaries, samples, language bindings, TODO lists ;-) available at http://www.openip.org/ ============= <P><A HREF="http://www.openip.org/html/oa_pyamulet.html">PyAmulet 0.1</A> - a module for the <A HREF="http://www.openip.org/">OpenAmulet</A>, highly dynamic GUI Toolkit. (30-Oct-99) Best regards, Paul mailto:paul-ml@is.lg.ua -- ----------- comp.lang.python.announce (moderated) ---------- Article Submission Address: python-announce(a)python.org Python Language Home Page: http://www.python.org/ Python Quick Help Index: http://www.python.org/Help.html ------------------------------------------------------------ [View Less]

1 0

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Oct 29)
by David Ascher Oct. 31, 1999

Oct. 31, 1999

The Python world is hopping this week, with some high-profile announcements: Two books out this week! Fredrik Lundh (a.k.a. eff-bot) published his guide to the standard Python library as an eMatter volume: http://www.pythonware.com/people/fredrik/librarybook.htm David Beazley releases a great summary of the essential Python information in his most excellent book (I know, I reviewed it): http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp&AN=540981804 Frank Willison is … [View More]

1 0

JPython 1.1 beta 4
by Barry A. Warsaw Oct. 28, 1999

Oct. 28, 1999

I'm pleased to announce the release of JPython 1.1 beta 4, the 100% Pure Java implementation of the Python language. Below is a summary of changes since 1.1 beta 3. Enjoy, -Barry New JPython features and bug fixes - fixed a bug related to loading anonymous inner classes (PR#201). This is an experimental patch. See registry file for entry python.options.extendedClassLoader - fixed Java exceptions when calling apply() with a bogus 3rd argument (PR#208) - fixed … [View More]

1 0

AmigaPython 1.5.2 build 4
by Irmen de Jong Oct. 28, 1999

Oct. 28, 1999

AmigaPython 1.5.2 - build 4 The Amiga version of Python. WHAT IT IS: This is the Python interpreter (version 1.5.2) for AmigaDOS. WHAT'S NEW ? - Prints correct string when command `exit' is issued at the prompt. - Fixed some missing 1.5.2 issues, like the os.error exception type. - A new time.strftime which passes the test. - Fixed amiga.crc32 function to comply with CRC32 standards. WHERE CAN I GET IT ? >From Aminet <http://us.aminet.net/~aminet/>, in the dev/… [View More]

1 0

Russian mailing list for Python, Zope
by Oleg Broytmann Oct. 27, 1999

Oct. 27, 1999

Hello! Russian-speaking Pythoneers, Zopers unite! I am trying to revive the mailing list for russian-speaking. I also want to add the Zope topic to the list. I am writing and debuggung simple web site based on Zope, and soon will provide read-only access to the managemenet interface for everyone who want to learn how to install, configure and run Zope application. Anyone interesting to talk about beloved Python language and Zope in Russian please subscribe: echo subscribe python |… [View More]

1 0

Zope Weekly News - Wed, 27 Oct 1999
by Amos Latteier Oct. 27, 1999

Oct. 27, 1999

Hi, As usual, the vast quantity of Zope activity this week is a bit overwhelming. One notable trend is the blossoming of not only community contributed Zope software, but community contributed Zope documentation. For example, there are currently 75 How-Tos on Zope.org! In addition, this week also saw several announcements for documentation on writing Python Products. * Jon Udell wrote an article entitled "XML-RPC Programming with Zope" for Zope for byte.com. http://www.byte.com/column/… [View More]

1 0

New Book: "Python Essential Reference"
by David Beazley Oct. 26, 1999

Oct. 26, 1999

*** Hot off the press! *** Python Essential Reference By David Beazley (with a foreword by Guido van Rossum) New Riders Publishing ISBN 0735709017 350 pages. I'm pleased to announce the release of a new Python reference book that is now shipping to a bookstore near you. In a nutshell, the Python Essential Reference is a concise and comprehensive reference to the Python language and its large library of modules. This book is designed to be a compact and … [View More]highly usable companion to other Python books and the online documentation. Some of its features include: - Comprehensive coverage of the Python tutorial, language reference, library reference, and C extension API. - Documentation for more than 100 modules in the standard Python library. - A concise presentation style in which material is not obscured by tutorial-style examples, programming lessons, advocacy, and language comparisons. As a result, the book serves as an excellent companion to introductory books such as Learning Python. - Expanded coverage of many library modules. In particular, much of the information contained in man pages and other books has been added to clarify topics in network programming, operating system interfaces, and other advanced topics. In addition, a variety of new examples have been added to further expand upon certain topics. - A compact design. I have taken great liberty in rewording, abridging, and reorganizing much of the existing Python documentation. Obsolete modules, fluff, and a number of more obscure topics have been omitted. In addition, the publisher has done a fantastic job of typesetting the book into a highly compact form factor that is easy to carry on the plane, take to a dinner date, or go just about anywhere one would expect to be writing a Python program. The bottom line: this is a highly compact and intelligent book that is intended to serve as a useful reference for Python programmers. I hope that you find it to be a useful addition to your Python programming library. More information can be found by following the links on http://www.python.org/psa/bookstore Please support the PSA by purchasing the book through the above site. Cheers, Dave <P><A HREF="http://www.python.org/psa/bookstore/">Python Essential Reference</A> - a new Python reference book; a concise and comprehensive reference to the Python language and its large library of modules. (25-Oct-99) -- ----------- comp.lang.python.announce (moderated) ---------- Article Submission Address: python-announce(a)python.org Python Language Home Page: http://www.python.org/ Python Quick Help Index: http://www.python.org/Help.html ------------------------------------------------------------ [View Less]

1 0

Python Consortium Announcement
by Guido van Rossum Oct. 26, 1999

Oct. 26, 1999

The Python Consortium is officially launched today. As proposed at the Python Conference last year in Houston, several big Python players are joining forces to further and promote Python and JPython development. Current members of the Python Consortium are: Full members: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Hewlett-Packard Associate members: Digital Creations Interet Corporation Foretec Seminars For more information about the consortium, see the Python Consortium webpage on … [View More]

1 0

4XSLT 0.7.2
by uche.ogbuji＠fourthought.com Oct. 26, 1999

Oct. 26, 1999

FourThought LLC (http://FourThought.com) announces the release of 4XSLT 0.7.2 ----------------------- A python implementation of the W3C's XSLT language 4XSLT is an XML transformation processor based on the W3C's specification for the XSLT transform language. http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt Currently, 4XSLT supports a sub-set of the October 8th working draft of XSLT including the following: Full … [View More]

1 0

4XPath 0.7.2
by uche.ogbuji＠fourthought.com Oct. 26, 1999

Oct. 26, 1999

FourThought LLC (http://FourThought.com) announces the release of 4XPath 0.7.2 ----------------------- A python implementation of the W3C's XPath language 4XPath implements the W3C XPath language for indicating and selecting XML document components. http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath 4XPath implements the full 4XPath specification except for the lang core function. News ---- This version fixes several … [View More]

1 0