Mailman 3 April 2002 - Python-announce-list

Formation of a Python Users' Group in the Los Angeles area.
by Kevin 06 Apr '02

06 Apr '02

I'm interested in coordinating the formation of a Python Users' Group in the Los Angeles area. Anyone else interested in getting involved, email me describing your level of interest. Thank you.

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[ANN] Puffin Testing Framework 0.8.5 Release -- Now with Regex Support
by A. Keyton Weissinger 05 Apr '02

05 Apr '02

**Announcing the 0.8.5 Release of the Puffin Testing Framework** Puffin allows you to test any web application or service. Once customized to your web application, you can use Puffin to unit test individual web pages, system test your entire web application, or load test your entire site. Now in its third public release, this web application testing framework is even more flexible and robust than before. Have a complex web application that needs to be rigorously tested? Puffin is the answer! Changes for version 0.8.5: 1) Improvement of test plan execution results reporting. The level of detail is now more configurable than before. 2) Introduction of "failed task alerts," which inform you of the details of a failed task in your test plan. 3) Incorporation of Vinay Sajip's logging system to allow for heightened flexibility in the logging of framework events, results reports, and failure alerts. Want your framework logging to occur on the console, the reports to go to a file, but the failed task alerts to go to your email? No problem. Need support for the NT event log or syslog? Child's play. 4) Improvement of text response analyzer (used to determine whether or not a test action returned what you expected). Now called the ExpressionResponseAnalyzer, it now supports regular expressions. 5) Need to extract an output token, but have only HTML coming back from your web application (as opposed to XML, for example)? Now you can use the puffin-core REGEX extractor. Simply configure your test action output with a regular expression and set the extractor type to REGEX and Puffin will take it from there! Please see the updated Puffin User's Guide (in the 'doc' folder) for more details. Keyton Weissinger <keyton(a)weissinger.org>

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ANN: Python Computer Graphics Kit v1.0beta1
by Matthias Baas 05 Apr '02

05 Apr '02

I have just released the first beta version of the Python Computer Graphics Kit, a collection of Python modules that contain the basic types and functions required for creating 3D computer graphics images. http://cgkit.sourceforge.net The kit includes several new types such as vectors, matrices and quaternions. It contains a binding for Pixar's RenderMan interface which is a renderer independent API to communicate 3D data to renderers which will finally produce a 2D image. There are already several RenderMan compliant renderers freely available (they are not part of the kit). The kit also includes some of the functionality from the RenderMan Shading Language which enables you to create procedural models or textures from within Python. Even though the kit focuses on RenderMan, the new types or the Shading Language functionality can also be used for other rendering mechanism such as OpenGL or other renderers such as POV-Ray. The kit should run on any platform where Python (and a C/C++ compiler) is available. Windows users can download a binary version for Python 2.1 or Python2.2. For more information, visit: http://cgkit.sourceforge.net - Matthias -

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[ANN] JpGraph 1.5.3 Graphs, Charts, Plots ported to Python
by seant＠iname.com 05 Apr '02

05 Apr '02

A Python version of JpGraph, a substantial presentation graphics module written in PHP by Johan Persson. "JpGraph is a fully OO graph library which makes it easy to both draw a "quick and dirty" graph with a minimum of code and quite complex graphs which requires a very fine grain of control. The library tries to assign sensible default values for most parameters hence making the learning curve quite flat since for most of the time very few commands is required to draw graphs with a pleasing aesthetic look." -- Johan Persson Our port of JpGraph depends on gdmodule, and of gd itself. Both are included in the tar file. The port also expects Freetype and appropriate TTF fonts, which are not included. Gantt charts and image maps still need work, but the package in general pretty well. Sample output is available from the download site. Thanks to Johan Persson, Chris Gonnerman, and Thomas Bouttel. Download from http://metagram.webreply.com Sean True Webreply, Inc.

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ANN: eGenix.com mxCGIPython Version 0.5.0
by M.-A. Lemburg 05 Apr '02

05 Apr '02

________________________________________________________________________ ANNOUNCING: eGenix.com mxCGIPython Version 0.5.0 An easy-to-install one-file Python Interpreter ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT IS IT ?: mxCGIPython is a project to provide a complete ready-to-run Python interpreter in one single executable file. The main intent for supplying such a single file executable is to ease deployment of Python for CGI scripting even when the ISP is not willing or able to install Python for you. The mxCGIPython archive contains everything needed to build the one file interpreter. The web page provides a set of links to contributed binaries for direct use in addition to setup instructions to get the binaries up and running at your ISP. See the documentation page for a list of available binary packages. Binaries for new platforms are always welcome :-) ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S NEW ? Version 0.5.0 now supports importing shared modules using the pre-compiled cgipython binary. Since all the already existing binaries don't support this yet, I'm looking for volunteers to send in compiled versions for all the popular platforms (e.g. different Linux distros, FreeBSD, NetBSD, AIX, Sun Cobalt, etc.). ________________________________________________________________________ WHERE CAN I GET IT ? The download archives and instructions for installing the packages can be found at: http://www.egenix.com/files/python/ ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT DOES IT COST ? The packages comes with a Python 2.0 style license, which means that you can use them in both commercial and non-commercial settings without fee or charge. The binaries are covered by the usual Python licenses. ________________________________________________________________________ WHERE CAN I GET SUPPORT ? Free support is available through the eGenix.com User Mailing List which provides a forum for eGenix.com Software Users: http://lists.egenix.com/mailman/listinfo/egenix-users/ Commercial quality support for these packages is available from eGenix.com Software GmbH. Please see http://www.egenix.com/files/python/eGenix-mx-Extensions.html#Support for details about the eGenix support offerings. ________________________________________________________________________ Enjoy, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH ______________________________________________________________________ Company & Consulting: http://www.egenix.com/ Python Software: http://www.egenix.com/files/python/

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[ANN]: Py Launches First Issue
by cook＠pyzine.com 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

El Segundo, CA 2002 March 04 Py, an independent technical zine for Python software developers, announced today the launch of its first issue. "I don't have a lot to say as I'm still exhausted from the last-minute, whirlwind editing session and now only have the tedious task of shipping ahead of me. The shakes from the caffeine are making it a bit difficult to focus right now, but I'm very happy with how the first issue turned out," said Bryan Richard, Editor and Publisher. Preorders for the first issue, which started 2002 February 01, topped out at just over 300 copies. Cover price for this landmark publication is $3.00 US and $5.00 Foreign and can be ordered at the website www.PyZine.com. For more information visit the website www.PyZine.com or email cook(a)pyzine.com. About Py (the zine) It's a zine. About Python. It's not nearly as ambivalent as this release probably makes it sound. About Py (the publishing empire) Py is largely the work of its contributors and Bryan Richard -- who is utterly disenchanted with the whole press release process and its oft-repeated verbiage. Bryan is just some guy from Southern California that wants to spread the good word about Python, drinks way too much coffee, and listens to a lot of indie rock. With the launch of Py he is one step closer to owning Hearst Castle. He can be reached at cook(a)pyzine.com

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RELEASED Mailman 2.0.9
by barry＠zope.com 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

I've just released version 2.0.9 of Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager. Mailman is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Version 2.0.9 fixes a race condition that can cause mail to occasionally be lost, among other useful fixes. I recommend anybody running any version of Mailman 2.0.x to upgrade to 2.0.9, the latest stable release. Details of what's changed are included below. GNU Mailman is software to help manage electronic mail discussion lists. Mailman gives each mailing list a unique web page and allows users to subscribe, unsubscribe, and change their account options over the web. Even the list manager can administer his or her list entirely via the web. Mailman has most of the features that people want in a mailing list management system, including built-in archiving, mail-to-news gateways, spam filters, bounce detection, digest delivery, and so on. Mailman is compatible with most web servers, web browsers, and mail servers. It runs on any Unix-like operating system. Mailman 2.0.9 requires Python 1.5.2 or newer. To install Mailman from source, you will need a C compiler. For more information on Mailman, including links to file downloads, please see the Mailman web page: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman And its mirrors at: http://mailman.sourceforge.net http://www.list.org Patches and source tarballs are available at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103 There are email lists (managed by Mailman, of course!) for both Mailman users and developers. See the web sites above for details. Cheers, -Barry 2.0.9 (02-Apr-2002) - Closed a race condition which could, under rare circumstances, cause the occasional message to get lost. - HTML escape message excerpts and headers on the admindb page so JavaScript and other evil tags can't mess up the display. - Some additional Python 2.2 compatibility fixes. - Unlink the footer logos so as not to bug the python.org and gnu.org maintainers as much. :( - Fix a crash in the DSN bounce detection module, which could cause some bounce messages to remain in the queue. - Add the RFC-2822 mandated Date: header on internally generated outgoing messages. Not all MTAs add this field if missing (read: Qmail).

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ANN: Pyrex - a language for writing Python extension modules
by Greg Ewing 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

Folks here may be interested in my latest project: A new language specially designed for writing Python extension modules. Pyrex is more or less Python with C data types added. You can write functions which freely intermix operations on Python and C data, with all Python reference counting and error checking completely automated. An example Pyrex module is shown below. For more information, see: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg/python/Pyrex/ where you can also download version 0.1 and try it out. I'm very keen to get feedback on this, both to find out whether people think it's useful, and to help me debug it! Oh, yeah, here's the example. It finds prime numbers at C speed. def primes(int kmax): cdef int n, k, i cdef int p[1000] result = [] if kmax > 1000: kmax = 1000 k = 0 n = 2 while k < kmax: i = 0 while i < k and n % p[i] <> 0: i = i + 1 if i == k: p[k] = n k = k + 1 result.append(n) n = n + 1 return result -- Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand To get my email address, please visit my web page: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg

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ANN: SLiP and SLIDE - a quick XML shorthand syntax and tool for editing
by Scott Sweeney 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

Announcing... SLiP 0.1: a "Sorta Like Python" shorthand syntax for XML SLIDE 0.1: a "Sorta Like an IDE" lightweight windows exe for SLiP editing SLiPpy 0.1: a SLiP package for Python, including a SLiP->XML library (sliplib.py) and source for SLIDE (slide.py) http://www.scottsweeney.com/projects/slip [Description] SLiP is a quick, alternative shorthand syntax for creating and editing XML data by hand and if you know Python, it should also be familiar. Great for taking notes. [Benefits] * Less typing - provides a quicker and easier means for creating or editing XML * Easier to read - creates a pleasant layout for the data with indentation and spacing * Benefits of XML - allow for hierarchical data, unlike tabbed or other character delimited data files * Cheap - provides a free XML editing alternative * Editor-agnostic and Keyboard-oriented - provide a quicker, more hacker-friendly way to create XML over point-and-click alternatives * Works in existing editors - most Python editors (IDLE, Scintilla, etc) should accept and make working with this syntax easy [Example] This portion of SLiP: my:addresses(xmlns:my="http://example.org/my"): #some random comment address(type="home"): street(): "123 Sesame Street" city(): "Wonderland" state(): "CA" zipCode(): "90012" comment(): """ Please leave packages with Grouch in garbage can next door. """ .. would convert to this XML: <my:addresses xmlns:my="http://example.org/my">  <address type="home"> <street>123 Sesame Street</street> <city>Wonderland</city> <state>CA</state> <zipCode>90012</zipCode> <comment> Please leave packages with Grouch in garbage can next door. </comment> </address> </my:addresses> I've created some free (MIT license) tools including a Python library for translating between XML and SLiP (SLiPpy), a lightweight editor wrapper (SLIDE), and some brief documentation - all available at the website, http://www.scottsweeney.com/projects/slip This is my first release of these tools so they are a little rough and they need more input, so let me know what you think. Thanks, Scott Sweeney [Contact] ssweeney(a)idiosync.net <P><A HREF="http://www.scottsweeney.com/projects/slip">SLiP</a> - a "Sorta Like Python" shorthand for XML (3-Apr-2002).

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ANN: Logging Module v0.4.1 released
by vinay_sajip＠yahoo.co.uk 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

A new version of the proposed Python standard logging module (as per PEP 282) has been released. You can get all the information from http://www.red-dove.com/python_logging.html There are "download" and "recent changes" links at the top of that page, and there is quite a lot of new stuff including support for XML, HTTP and SOAP, user-defined logger classes, a ConfigParser-based configuration file format, a Tkinter GUI-based configurator and more! As always, your feedback is most welcome (especially bug reports, patches and suggestions for improvement). Cheers Vinay Sajip Red Dove Consultants Ltd. Changes since the last version: ================================= Bug fix SMTPHandler - extra \r\n needed (Oleg Orlov) Added BufferingHandler, BufferingFormatter Renamed getChainedPriority to getEffectiveLevel Removed Logger.getRoot as it is redundant Added log_test9.py to test Buffering classes and to show an XMLFormatter example. Added setLoggerClass. Added log_test10.py to test setLoggerClass, using an example Logger-derived class which outputs exception info even for DEBUG level logging calls Added log_test11.py to test a buffering implementation of SMTPHandler Changed logging call implementation to allow keyword arguments (Kevin Butler and others) Changed default SysLogHandler implementation. Renamed "additive" to "propagate" as it better describes the attribute. Added HTTPHandler. Modified logrecv.py to remove "both" option and to add "HTTP" and "SOAP" options (SOAP option needs you to have PyXML-0.6.6 and ZSI installed - for logrecv.py only, and not for the core logging module itself). Added log_test12.py to test HTTPHandler. Added log_test13.py to test SOAPHandler. Formatted to Python source guidelines (spaces, indent of 4, within 80 columns). More method renamings (result of feedback) - _handle() renamed to emit(), _logRecord() renamed to handle(). Renamed FATAL to CRITICAL (David Goodger), but left fatal() and FATAL in (until PEP is changed) Changed configuration file format to ConfigParser format. Factored filter application functionality out to a new Filterer class. The isLoggable() method is renamed to filter() in both Filter and Filterer classes. Altered SMTPHandler __init__ to accept (host, port) for the mail internet address. Added GUI configurator which uses Tkinter and the new configuration file format. (See logconf.py and an example configuration file in logconf.ini) Altered log_test3.py to test with the new file format.

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