Mailman 3 October 2003 - Python-announce-list

python-dev Summary for 2003-09-16 through 2003-09-30
by Brett C. Oct. 13, 2003

Oct. 13, 2003

python-dev Summary for 2003-09-16 through 2003-09-30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from September 16, 2003 through September 30, 2003. It is intended to inform the wider Python community of on-going developments on the list. To comment on anything mentioned here, just post to `comp.lang.python`_ (or email python-list(a)python.org which is a gateway to the newsgroup) with a subject line mentioning what you are discussing. All python-dev members are interested in seeing ideas discussed by the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on something. And if all of this really interests you then get involved and join `python-dev`_! This is the twenty-sixth summary written by Brett Cannon (homework, the Summaries, how does he find the time?). All summaries are archived at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ . Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_ which can be found at http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html . Any unfamiliar punctuation is probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably regular expression syntax or a typo =); you can safely ignore it, although I suggest learning reST; it's simple and is accepted for `PEP markup`_ and gives some perks for the HTML output. Also, because of the wonders of programs that like to reformat text, I cannot guarantee you will be able to run the text version of this summary through Docutils_ as-is unless it is from the original text file. .. _PEP Markup: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0012.html The in-development version of the documentation for Python can be found at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking up any documentation on something mentioned here. PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) are located at http://www.python.org/peps/ . To view files in the Python CVS online, go to http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ . Reported bugs and suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge_ project page. .. _python-dev: http://www.python.org/dev/ .. _SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470 .. _python-dev mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev .. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=comp.lang.python .. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/ .. _reST: .. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html .. contents:: .. _last summary: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2003-09-01_2003-09-15.html ===================== Summary Announcements ===================== First, sorry about the lateness of this summary. I have started my first quarter at `Cal Poly SLO`_. Not only do I get to deal with being back in school for the first time in over a year, but I also get to be abruptly introduced to the quarter system. Joys abound for me. I am still reworking how I manage my time and the Summaries were the first thing to take a back seat. Hopefully this won't happen again. In case you have not been following general Python news, `Python 2.3.2`_ is now the newest release of Python. In case you missed the Python 2.3.1 release, then you missed the little hiccup in that release, which is fine. The Python 2.3.2 release does not technically fall under the jurisdiction of this summary, but I am not going to wait half a month to let people know about it. .. _Cal Poly SLO: http://www.calpoly.edu/ .. _Python 2.3.2: http://www.python.org/2.3.2/ ========= Summaries ========= ---------------------------------------------------------- Deprecations won't spontaneously appear in a micro release ---------------------------------------------------------- In case you don't know, sets.BaseSet.update() has been deprecated in favor of union_update() in order to cut out the unneeded duplication of functionality in Python 2.4 . While 2.3.1 was still under development it grew a PendingDeprecationWarning. This did not sit well with some people. The argument for the PendingDeprecationWarning was that it is silent by default and gives people a heads-up in terms of things that are known to be deprecated in the next minor version of Python. Against this idea, the argument that it adds a change between micro versions that is not a bug fix was raised. In the end this won. Contributing threads: - `pending deprecation warning for Set.update <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038113.html>`__ ------------------------------ Web-SIG on its way, supposedly ------------------------------ Bill Janssen is working on a charter so a Web SIG_ can be started in order to redesign the cgi module as the main goal, but also just making Python friendlier to web coding in general. .. _SIG: http://www.python.org/community/sigs.html Contributing threads: - `Improving the CGI module <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038128.html>`__ ------------------------------------------- Threads and the desolation that is shutdown ------------------------------------------- Tim Peters decided to try to deal with the fact that the Zope 3 testing suite was spitting out a ton of messages about unhandled exceptions during shutdown of the interpreter. It turned out that threads were still running during shutdown and thus were throwing a fit because they were accessing module globals that were being torn down and set to None. The problem went away when the second call to PyGC_Collect() in Py_Finalize() was commented out. This is not totally acceptable since the second call is there to help collect garbage at shutdown so that things clean up properly. Tim did end up suggesting just taking it out, though, for a future version of Python. He also suggested tearing down the sys module even later (and thus "even more of a special case than it is now"). This would leave sys.modules around and thus not cause globals to turn to None and cause errors from that side-effect. Neither solution has been taken yet. A temporary solution if you keep running into this is to make sure that either your cleanup code only accesses local variables (if you have to store references to globals since that will keep them around for you during shutdown). Contributing threads: - `Fun with 2.3 shutdown <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038151.html>`__ ---------------------- Where is str.rsplit?!? ---------------------- The reason str.rsplit does not exist in Python is because the method is not difficult to code on your own. And yet people still want it. But there was not of a public outcry and the topic just fizzled. Contributing threads: - `Discussion on adding rsplit() for strings and unicode objects. <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038155.html>`__ ----------------- Waxing on PEP 310 ----------------- Holger Krekel brought up PEP 310 (entitled "Reliable Acquisition/Release Pairs") in terms of how code blocks should handle exceptions and such. Michael Hudson suggested that might be taking PEP 310 beyond what it is meant to cover. To this, Holger suggested that then perhaps some other route should be taken. As with all PEPs, discussion of them is always helpful for python-dev and the community. It helps hash out ideas and gives python-dev feedback on whether a PEP should be rejected. Contributing threads: `pep 310 (reliable acquisition/release pairs) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038160.html>`__ ------------------------------------------------------------ bsddb3 failures and the database system it wraps, news at 10 ------------------------------------------------------------ The bsddb3 regression tests were failing during preparation for Python 2.3.1 . Beyond the "the test just fails sometimes" issues that come up with tests that are finicky because of timing, it was suggested that the failures are the fault of the Sleepycat_ DB code. It is still being looked into. .. _Sleepycat: http://www.sleepycat.com/ Contributing threads: - `latest bsddb3 test problems <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038195.html>`__ ---------------------------------------------------- We want *you* to help with the war on SF patch items ---------------------------------------------------- Someone wanted to help but wasn't sure how they could. Martin v. Loewis sent an email listing common things anyone can do to help with dealing with the patch items on SourceForge_. The email can be found at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038253.html . Contributing threads: - `Help offered <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038245.html>`__ --------------- Python glossary --------------- Skip Montanaro converted the glossary he has as a wiki at http://manatee.mojam.com/python-glossary to the proper format to be included in the Python documentation. You can peruse the glossary as it stands in the documentation at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/tut/node16.html. Thanks to Skip for for doing the grunt work and getting this done. If you wish to help, please visit the wiki and add/edit/whatever . Contributing threads: - `Python Glossary <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038280.html>`__ ---------------------------------- Mitch Kapor to speak at PyCon 2004 ---------------------------------- Mitch Kapor is founder of the `Open Source Application Foundation`_ (OSAF), co-founder of the `Electronic Frontier Foundation`_, and developer of Chandler_ . He is going to be the keynote speaker at `PyCon 2004`_ . The general `Call for Proposals`_ has gone out. If you have any desire to speak at PyCon take a look at the CFP. .. _PyCon 2004: http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/ .. _Open Source Application Foundation: http://www.osafoundation.org/ .. _Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/ .. _Chandler: http://www.osafoundation.org/Chandler-Product_FAQ.htm .. _Call for Proposals: http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/cfp.html ----------------------------------------------------- Python 2.3.1 released, people were happy... initially ----------------------------------------------------- Python 2.3.1 was released to the general public. It was meant to be a bug-fix release to fix bugs that were discovered after Python 2.3 went out the door. But then a typo in the configure.in script that prevented os.fsync() from ever being included was discovered. A rather vocal group of users of this function got out their pitchforks and torches while screaming, "blood, blood!" (actually they were nice about it, but saying, "they kindly asked for a new release," isn't that dramatic, is it?) How were the rioting masses (who were actually not rioting) appeased? Contributing threads: - `2.3.1 is (almost) a go <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038229.html>`__ - `RELEASED Python 2.3.1 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038254.html>`__ - `How to test for stuff like fsync? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038354.html>`__ ---------------------------------------------- Let them eat cake while releasing Python 2.3.2 ---------------------------------------------- Python 2.3.2 was released to deal with the os.fsync() snafu. HP/UX compiling issues were also addressed. The bsddb3 problems are still there, but it is becoming more and more certain that the issues are with Sleepycat and not the bsddb module. Contributing threads: - `plans for 2.3.2 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038360.html>`__ - `Python2.3.2 and release23-maint branch <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038427.html>`__ - `2.3.2 and bsddb <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038433.html>`__ - `RELEASED Python 2.3.2, release candidate 1 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038449.html>`__ - `OpenSSL vulnerability <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/038455.html>`__ - `RELEASED Python 2.3.2 (final) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038523.html>`__

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Python-2.3.1 available at Python-Hosting.com
by remi＠cherrypy.org Oct. 12, 2003

Oct. 12, 2003

Python-2.3.1 is now available on all the servers at Python-Hosting.com (making it one of the first hosting providers to support Python-2.3.1 :-) People using Python CGI or Python-2.3-compatible application servers will be able to use all the exciting new features of Python-2.3 for their website. Also, as of August this year, all the user data is being backed-up every night to remote servers and all the servers are being monitored 24/7. About Python-Hosting.com: Python-Hosting.com is a hosting provider specialized in Python. Supported software includes Zope, Plone, WebWare, CherryPy, SkunkWeb, Twisted, Spyce, mod_python and others (in fact, pretty much everything you want that runs on Python :-) Remi. remi(a)remove-me.python-hosting.com ---------------------- Specialized python hosting: http://www.python-hosting.com Python application server: http://www.cherrypy.org Free CherryPy hosting: http://www.freecherrypy.org ----------------------

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ANN: JASPlogging ver.0.1.0 - Python logging for Jabber and Spread
by g.p.ciceri Oct. 12, 2003

Oct. 12, 2003

Hello all, JASPlogging is a Python module to extend the logging facility to Jabber and/or Spread messages. It provides the handlers. You can find it at: http://pyhacks.suddenthinks.com/JASPlogging/ Every comment is welcome, as usual. /gp -- Gian Paolo Ciceri Via G.Marconi 5 - 22036 ERBA CO ITALY mobile : ++39 340 7218101 : ++39 329 8103661 eMail : gp.ciceri(a)acm.org, : gp.ciceri(a)suddenthinks.com webSite: http://www.suddenthinks.com ICQ # : 94620118 jabber : gp.ciceri(a)jabber.com

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Announce: PythonD 2.2.1 Release 2.1(final) development platform for DOS
by deckerben Oct. 11, 2003

Oct. 11, 2003

ANNOUNCEMENT: PythonD 2.2.1 Release 2.1 (final) is now available for public download at: http://members.lycos.co.uk/bdeck/pythond.htm This is a stable patch level release. Many additional modules are also available for download including: Reportlab 1.15 PDF library PyHL HDF5 file format library Gnome LibXML2 and LibXSLT modules (based on LibXML2 2.5.8) PyXML 0.82 PyNumeric 23.0 If you are using DJGPP, the distribution should be unzipped (with a utility that will preserve internal directory structure) at your root(top) DJGPP directory. If you are using networking, be sure to back up critical files from your %ETC% directory, including 'hosts' and 'wattcp.cfg', is they are included blank in the distribution, also your ssl directory. **************************************************************************** ENHANCEMENTS and FIXES over last (2.0) Release include: Curses module support for multibyte keys and characters improved. os.path.dirname and realpath fixed to accomodate '\\' seperator and '/'. Socketmodule rebuilt with improved SSL libraries. test_fcntl.py now passes (but of limited usefulness) test_select.py ported to DJGPP (using bash.exe) Several new C symbols added to export table Enabled network packet debugging mode (using '-v' python startup option) readline history file is now located in same dir as python.exe I am seeking volunteers to help with parts of the project, particularly with ideas for OpenGL and porting GTK or TKinter. If you like python and have interest in porting/maintaining a VGA/SVGA python GUI library standard for DOS, please contact me :-) Regards, Ben

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ANN: spreadxmlrpclib v.0.1 - XMLRPC over Spread
by g.p.ciceri Oct. 11, 2003

Oct. 11, 2003

spreadxmlrpclib is a Python module to make XMLRPC procedure calls over Spread (http://www.spread.org). It uses the Spread Group communication transport instead of the standard HTTP POST, so it's lighter and it's able to take advantage of its rich communication semantics. You can find it at http://pyhacks.suddenthinks.com/spreadrpc/ Every comment is welcome, as usual /gp -- Gian Paolo Ciceri Via G.Marconi 5 - 22036 ERBA CO ITALY mobile : ++39 340 7218101 : ++39 329 8103661 eMail : gp.ciceri(a)acm.org, : gp.ciceri(a)suddenthinks.com webSite: http://www.suddenthinks.com ICQ # : 94620118 jabber : gp.ciceri(a)jabber.com

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ANN: PyObjC 1.0
by Ronald Oussoren Oct. 10, 2003

Oct. 10, 2003

The PyObjC developers are happy to announce the 1.0 release of PyObjC. It is available for download at http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/. PyObjC is a bridge between Python and Objective-C. It allows full featured Cocoa applications and plugins to be written in pure Python. It is also easy to use other frameworks containing Objective-C class libraries from Python and to mix in Objective-C, C and C++ source. Python is a highly dynamic programming language with a shallow learning curve. It combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. The installer package includes a number of Project Builder templates for easily creating new Cocoa-Python projects, as well as support for syntax-coloring Python files in Project Builder. PyObjC also supports full introspection of Objective-C classes and direct invocation of Objective-C APIs from the interactive interpreter. PyObjC requires MacOS X 10.2 or later. PyObjC works both with the Apple provided Python installation in MacOS X 10.2 (and later) and with MacPython 2.3. Users of MacPython 2.3 can install PyObjC though the PackageManager application. Version 1.0 fixes a number of bugs in the beta release, and fixes some inconsitencies in the exposed interfaces. It also includes improved support for Key-Value Coding (the NSKeyValue coding informal protocol). PyObjC is released with an open source license.

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Awards for development of build tool presented
by Bram Moolenaar Oct. 10, 2003

Oct. 10, 2003

In July I have invited you to help working on the A-A-P project and have a chance to win a Zimbu Award. The awards have now been presented. Many software developers work on freely distributable computer programs without compensation. Thus it does not provide them with money and the work must be done next to a job or studies. An expression of appreciation for the work done is appropriate. Mostly this appreciation only consists of an informal "thank you" from users. For the A-A-P project we wanted to do more than that and the contest for the Zimbu Awards was put in place. Zimbu is the A-A-P mascot. The three Zimbu Award winners are: Adriaan de Groot receives the 444 euro award for "the best contribution to the A-A-P project". He has tracked down a large number of problems and provided solutions. He changed the documentation from SGML to XML and wrote an explanation about how to get the required tools for XML. Adriaan added support for "libtool", helped implementing language modules and improved the robustness of several commands. Rui Lopes receives the 222 euro award for "the most useful patch for Aap or Agide". Rui made the FreeBSD port of Aap and supplied patches to make installing Aap work a lot better. The quality of his patches was remarkably high. By making the FreeBSD port he also increased the visibility of the A-A-P project. Joerg Beyer receives the 111 euro award for "the brightest idea for the A-A-P project". Joerg has supplied several solutions for tricky problems in the Aap implementation. The scope support was based on his ideas, he made a first implementation for the automatic configuration support and improved the setup for testing. Strangely, not much of his code ended up in Aap, but his suggestions were indispensible. Joerg replied that he donates the money to the ICCF Holland foundation, the charity that Bram Moolenaar promotes to help needy children in Uganda (http://iccf-holland.org/). Adriaan de Groot, the winner of the main prize, was pleasantly surprised with the award being presented to him in person. It happens to be that the winner works not far from where the A-A-P project leader lives. Everybody in the world had an equal oppurtunity to get the prize. Adriaan has clearly given the largest contribution to the project. Bram Moolenaar, the A-A-P project leader, assures that the distance was of no importance when selecting the winner. When asked whether the chance to win a Zimbu Award has motivated him to work on A-A-P Adriaan replies this was indeed so. He has a limited amount of time available and a lot of plans. Nevertheless, his appreciation for the capabilities of Aap also played an important role. He expects that Aap will make building KDE applications a lot simpler. Adriaan intends to keep working on this the coming months, thus he certainly deserves the Zimbu Award. Obviously, the development of Aap and Agide continues. Despite the passing of the deadline for the Zimbu Awards the A-A-P maillist is busy with discussions about further improvements. We are thankful that many developers are willing to spend time on improving open-source software without getting a prize. The prizes have been made available by Stichting NLnet, the organisation that also funded the setup of the A-A-P project. There may be some confusion about the names. A short explanation: A-A-P: The name of the project. It is not an abbreviation, it was selected because the "a-a-p.org" domain was available and sorts nicely. Aap: Name of the major program in the A-A-P project. Aap executes recipes, which are files that describe work to be done. It can be compared to "make", but is more robust, portable and has many more features. Agide: Another program of the A-A-P project. It stands for "A-A-P GUI IDE". It is a flexible software development platform. Zimbu: The A-A-P mascot. Aap is the Dutch word for monkey. For pictures of the award presentation: http://www.a-a-p.org/zimbu_award.html For questions: Bram Moolenaar <Bram(a)a-a-p.org> About the A-A-P project: ------------------------ A-A-P makes it easy to locate, download, build and install software. It also supports browsing source code, developing programs, managing different versions and distribution of software and documentation. This means that A-A-P is useful both for users and for developers. A-A-P is an open-source software project: everybody can contribute and the software is freely distributable under the GNU GPL. URL: http://www.a-a-p.org/ About Stichting NLnet: ---------------------- NLnet is a non-profit organization with a mission and a philosophy. The mission is to advance network technology. The philosophy is Open Source. NLnet supports a wide range of projects and activities, varying from software development and scientific research to information dissemination in the form of workshops, conferences and exchange programs. All results of research and development supported by NLnet, such as software, publications and experience, are made available under open source software licenses for further development, deployment and distribution. URL: http://www.nlnet.nl/ About Bram Moolenaar: --------------------- Bram Moolenaar is the project leader of A-A-P. He worked full-time on the project for the past one and a half year. Bram is mostly known for his work on Vim, the text editor that is included with most Linux distributions and voted "best editor" several times. URL: http://www.moolenaar.net/ -- hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict: 160. You get in the elevator and double-click the button for the floor you want. /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram(a)Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\ /// Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.Vim.org \\\ \\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org /// \\\ Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html ///

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Re: [ANN] pylint-0.2.1
by Alexandre Fayolle Oct. 10, 2003

Oct. 10, 2003

On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 12:03:59PM +0200, Alexandre Fayolle wrote: > Download: ftp://ftp.logilab.org/pub/pylint/pylint-0.2.tar.gz Well... If you want the new release, you'd better use ftp://ftp.logilab.org/pub/pylint/pylint-0.2.1.tar.gz Sorry for the inconvenience. -- Alexandre Fayolle LOGILAB, Paris (France). http://www.logilab.com http://www.logilab.fr http://www.logilab.org Développement logiciel avancé - Intelligence Artificielle - Formations

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[ANN] pylint-0.2.1
by Alexandre Fayolle Oct. 10, 2003

Oct. 10, 2003

Logilab has released pylint-0.2.1 What's new? ----------- This releases features a long due quickstart document, and a FAQ. It also corrects several problems with the encoding checker and the format checker. Indentation problems are now warnings instead of errors. Pylint now tries to handle all known filename extensions for python source code. About Pylint ------------ Pylint is a lint-like tool for Python code. It performs almost all the verifications that pychecker does, and additionally can perform some stylistic verification and coding standard enforcements. The checked code is assigned a mark based on the number and the severity of the encountered problems. The previous mark of a given piece of code is cached so that you can see if the code quality has improved since the last check. Dependencies ------------ Python >= 2.2 (http://www.python.org/) logilab-common >= 0.3.4 (http://www.logilab.org/projects/common/) optik >= 1.4 (only with python < 2.3) (http://optik.sf.net/) URLs ---- Homepage: http://www.logilab.org/projects/pylint Download: ftp://ftp.logilab.org/pub/pylint/pylint-0.2.tar.gz Documentation: http://www.logilab.org/projects/pylint/documentation -- Alexandre Fayolle LOGILAB, Paris (France). http://www.logilab.com http://www.logilab.fr http://www.logilab.org Développement logiciel avancé - Intelligence Artificielle - Formations

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Initial implementation of XMLRPC over Spread
by g.p.ciceri Oct. 10, 2003

Oct. 10, 2003

Hello all, I've just setup a little python implementation (a simple server class and a client test program) of XMLRPC calls over a Spread (http://www.spread.org) communication group. It's rather crude; from a private msgbox you send a SAFE message (coded in XMLRPC syntax) to a well-known group acting as (server) endpoint. From a server listening to this endpoint you send another SAFE message back to the client with the XMLRPC response. As method to reduce group communication noise there's a filter on the messagetype: I've used type 006 to tag message for rpc processing. Error handling is non-existant, so is documentation. You'll find it at http://pyhacks.suddenthinks.com/index.html#20031010 Any comment will be appreciated, as usual. Regards /gp -- Gian Paolo Ciceri Via G.Marconi 5 - 22036 ERBA CO ITALY mobile : ++39 340 7218101 eMail : gp.ciceri(a)acm.org : gp.ciceri(a)suddenthinks.com webSite: http://www.suddenthinks.com ICQ # : 94620118 jabber : gp.ciceri(a)jabber.com

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