Mailman 3 June 2001 - Python-announce-list

PyWebLib 1.0.1
by Michael Ströder June 30, 2001

June 30, 2001

HI! I'd like to announce PyWebLib (formerly announced as msweb). I renamed it to avoid a name clash with a commercial product. You can find it on: http://www.stroeder.com/pylib/PyWebLib/ But be warned that documentation is very sparse (some short examples and pydoc-generated HTML). Ciao, Michael.

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Python 2.1 docs in GNU info format
by Fred L. Drake, Jr. June 29, 2001

June 29, 2001

Milan Zamazal has contributed Python 2.1 documentation in GNU info format. It is available on python.org: ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/doc/2.1/ and on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5470&release_id=41415 Thanks, Milan! -Fred -- Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at acm.org> PythonLabs at Digital Creations

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ANN: VideoCapture 0.3 released
by Markus Gritsch June 28, 2001

June 28, 2001

VideoCapture-0.3 ================ URL: ---- http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9326522/VideoCapture/ What it is: ----------- VideoCapture is a Python extension for Win32 which makes it possible to access video-capture devices (e.g. a USB webcam). What is new in version 0.3: --------------------------- *) Included a precompiled binary of the low level module linked against Pyhton 2.1 (in addition to the one which was already there for Python 2.0). *) Added a tool to periodically upload a WebCam-image to a WebServer via FTP. *) Added a tool to monitor (and save in case of a change) a Picture located at a given URL. *) More than one Device instance can be held open at the same time. *) The location of the timestamp in the image is selectable. ATTENTION: ---------- I would like to put a list of Python-powered WebCam URLs together, so please send me an email with the URL of the image or HTML page if you use VideoCapture. Contact: -------- Markus Gritsch (gritsch(a)iue.tuwien.ac.at) Enjoy and have fun!

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ANN: SOAP.py 0.9.7
by Cayce Ullman June 28, 2001

June 28, 2001

The latest version of SOAP.py (a SOAP implementation in written in Python), was released today. We're moving the project from actzero to sourceforge. It now can be found at : http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywebsvcs/ Comments, feedback, patches, etc... very welcome. Changes since last announcement: VERSION 0.9.7 (6/27/01) - Fixed the un-named ordered parameters bug - Added the ability to specify a http_proxy - Added a patch provided by Tim MiddelKoop to allow printing of proxy objects - Added the contrib directory and included a medusa implementation of a SOAP.py server by Ng Pheng Siong VERSION 0.9.6 (6/08/01) - The date and time types now check their initial values when the type is created, not when the data is marshalled. - The date and time types are now parsed and returned as tuples (for multi-element types) or scalars (for single element types) in UTC and thus can represent the entire range of SOAP dates. - If an element doesn't have a type but has a name with a namespace, the name is tried as the type. - Untyped compound types with more than one element and all the elements the same name are turned into an array when parsing. - When parsing a structType, elements with the same name are placed in a list instead of saving just the last one. _getItemsAsList can be used to get an element of a structure as a list, whether there was one or many occurances of the item. - Added schemaNamespace, schemaNamespaceURI, and namespaceStyle configuration options. namespaceStyle takes one of 1999, 2000, or 2001, and sets typesNamespace, typesNamespaceURI, schemaNamespace, and schemaNamespaceURI. - Normalized the type class names, replacing Compound with compoundType, Struct with structType, Header with headerType, Body with bodyType, Array with arrayType, TypedArray with typedArrayType, Fault with faultType, and urType with anyType. - Attributes now appear on an element itself instead of the element's parent. For elements parsed to builtin python types, the attributes are stored in a dictionary keyed by the element's python id. The dictionary is in the Context object, can be returned from parseSOAP*, and can be returned from method calls if the returnAllAttrs configuration option is set. - isinstance is used to check for a class, so classes can be subtyped. - An encoding of None can be specified to not include encoding information. - Problems with the SOAPProxy URL are now reported when the SOAPProxy instance is created instead of when the first method call is made. - The Binary, Boolean and DateTime types have been removed in favor of binaryType, booleanType, and dateTimeType.

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Authors needed for Python Books
by Dan Barthel June 27, 2001

June 27, 2001

Hi, I'm looking for Python authors in several areas. Guido suggested I post my request. 1. Introduction to Programming. An introductory book, ideally by an educator, to teach Python as a first language. Not for CS people, but for mortals. 2. Web Programming with Python. Using Python as a CGI scripting language. 3. XML Programming with Python. All the usual XML stuff, plus SOAP. 4. Expert Zope. Making the most of Zope. 5. If you have a topic you would like to publish, I'll listen. If anyone has a desire to jump in on any of the above topics, please let me know. We would like to expand our selection of excellent Python books at Manning. Regards, Dan ======================================= Dan Barthel Acquisitions Editor Manning Publications Co. 32 Lafayette Place, Greenwich, CT 06830 941-394-6662 www.manning.com =======================================

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ANN: PyChecker version 0.6.1
by Neal Norwitz June 27, 2001

June 27, 2001

A new version of PyChecker is available for your hacking pleasure. PyChecker is a tool for finding common bugs in python source code. It finds problems that are typically caught by a compiler for less dynamic languages, like C and C++. Comments, criticisms, new ideas, and other feedback is welcome. Here's the CHANGELOG: * Check format strings: "%s %s %s" % (v1, v2, v3, v4) for arg counts * Warn when format strings do: '%(var) %(var2)' * Fix Local variable (xxx) not used, when have: "%(xxx)s" % locals() * Warn when local variable (xxx) doesn't exist and have: "%(xxx)s" % locals() * Install script in /usr/local/bin to invoke PyChecker * Don't produce unused global warnings when using a module in parameters * Don't produce unused global warnings when using a module in class variables * Add check when using method as an attribute (if self.method and x == y:) * Add check for right # of args to object construction * Add check for right # of args to function calls in other modules * Check for returning a value from __init__ * Fix using from XX import YY ; from XX import ZZ causing re-import warning * Fix UNABLE TO IMPORT errors for files that don't end with a newline * Support for checking consistent return values -- not complete produces too many false positives (off by default, use -r/--returnvalues to enable) PyChecker is available on Source Forge: Web page: http://pychecker.sourceforge.net/ Project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pychecker/ Neal -- pychecker(a)metaslash.com

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Sybase module 0.28 (Brown Paper Bag) released
by Dave Cole June 27, 2001

June 27, 2001

What is it: The Sybase module provides a Python interface to the Sybase relational database system. The Sybase package supports almost all of the Python Database API, version 2.0 with extensions. The module works with Python versions 1.5.2 and later and Sybase versions 11.0.3 and later. It is based on the Sybase Client Library (ct_* API), and the Bulk-Library Client (blk_* API) interfaces. The 0.20 and later releases are a re-implementation of the module using a thin C wrapper on the Sybase-CT API, and a Python module to provide the DB-API functionality. It is still a work in progress, but should be good enough for most purposes. Changes for this release: After shooting my mouth off about the cool things that you can do with bulkcopy I went back and tested my claims. I found that I had not implemented support for the bulkcopy optional argument to Sybase.connect()... Changes for this release: - The following claim I made earlier today on comp.lang.python is now true: If your source data is CSV format then you can use another one of the modules I wrote to load it into a format suitable to feeding the bulkcopy object in the Sybase module. The module was written specifically to handle data type data produced by Access and Excel. http://www.object-craft.com.au/projects/csv/ >>> import Sybase, csv >>> >>> db = Sybase.connect('SYBASE', 'user', 'password', bulkcopy = 1, auto_commit = 1) >>> db.execute('create table #bogus (name varchar(40), num int)') >>> >>> p = csv.parser() >>> bcp = db.bulkcopy('#bogus') >>> for line in open('datafile').readlines(): >>> fields = p.parse(line) >>> if fields: >>> bcp.rowxfer(line) >>> print 'Loaded', bcp.done(), 'rows' - Documentation updates. - Dave P.S. Hopefully there will be a period of more than one day before the next release... -- http://www.object-craft.com.au

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PEP 260: simplify xrange()
by Guido van Rossum June 26, 2001

June 26, 2001

Here's another sweet and short PEP. What do folks think? Is xrange()'s complexity really worth having? --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) PEP: 260 Title: Simplify xrange() Version: $Revision: 1.1 $ Author: guido(a)python.org (Guido van Rossum) Status: Draft Type: Standards Track Python-Version: 2.2 Created: 26-Jun-2001 Post-History: 26-Jun-2001 Abstract This PEP proposes to strip the xrange() object from some rarely used behavior like x[i:j] and x*n. Problem The xrange() function has one idiomatic use: for i in xrange(...): ... However, the xrange() object has a bunch of rarely used behaviors that attempt to make it more sequence-like. These are so rarely used that historically they have has serious bugs (e.g. off-by-one errors) that went undetected for several releases. I claim that it's better to drop these unused features. This will simplify the implementation, testing, and documentation, and reduce maintenance and code size. Proposed Solution I propose to strip the xrange() object to the bare minimum. The only retained sequence behaviors are x[i], len(x), and repr(x). In particular, these behaviors will be dropped: x[i:j] (slicing) x*n, n*x (sequence-repeat) cmp(x1, x2) (comparisons) i in x (containment test) x.tolist() method x.start, x.stop, x.step attributes By implementing a custom iterator type, we could speed up the common use, but this is optional (the default sequence iterator does just fine). I expect it will take at most an hour to rip it all out; another hour to reduce the test suite and documentation. Scope This PEP only affects the xrange() built-in function. Risks Somebody's code could be relying on the extended code, and this code would break. However, given that historically bugs in the extended code have gone undetected for so long, it's unlikely that much code is affected. Copyright This document has been placed in the public domain. Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil End:

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Sybase module 0.27 released
by Dave Cole June 26, 2001

June 26, 2001

What is it: The Sybase module provides a Python interface to the Sybase relational database system. The Sybase package supports almost all of the Python Database API, version 2.0 with extensions. The module works with Python versions 1.5.2 and later and Sybase versions 11.0.3 and later. It is based on the Sybase Client Library (ct_* API), and the Bulk-Library Client (blk_* API) interfaces. The 0.20 and later releases are a re-implementation of the module using a thin C wrapper on the Sybase-CT API, and a Python module to provide the DB-API functionality. It is still a work in progress, but should be good enough for most purposes. Changes for this release: - Sybase.py module no longer imports exceptions module. - Optional auto_commit argument has been added to Sybase.connect(). The default value is 0. - Optional delay_connect argument has been added to Sybase.connect(). The default value is 0. This allows you to manipulate the Sybase connection before connecting to the server. >>> import Sybase >>> db = Sybase.connect(server, user, passwd, delay_connect = 1) >>> db.set_property(Sybase.CS_HOSTNAME, 'secret') >>> db.connect() - Removed redundant argument from sybasect.ct_data_info() - Added pickle capability to NumericType - I somehow forgot to copy this over from the old 0.13 module. - Re-arranged sybasect.h to make it easier to follow - I hope. - Documentation updates. - Dave -- http://www.object-craft.com.au

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msWeb 1.0.0
by Michael Ströder June 25, 2001

June 25, 2001

HI! I'd like to announce msWeb which is yet another module package for web programming with Python (formerly probably not known ;-) as a bunch of separate modules cgiforms, cgisession etc.). You can find it on: http://www.stroeder.com/msWeb/ But be warned that documentation is very sparse (some short examples and pydoc-generated HTML). Ciao, Michael.

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