Mailman 3 April 2004 - Python-announce-list

ANN: cssutils v0.53
by csad7＠t-online.de April 18, 2004

April 18, 2004

what is it ---------- A Python package to parse and build CSS Cascading Style Sheets. Partly implement the DOM Level 2 CSS interfaces. Additional some cssutils only convenience and (hopefully) more pythonic methods are integrated. Thanks to Cory Dodt for helpful suggestions and some code patches and to David Mertz for his book ”Text Processing in Python“ and the included statemachine.py which is used for cssutils Cssutils are far from being perfect or even complete, if you find bugs or have suggestions or problems please contact me. changes in this release ----------------------- new cssunknownrule.UnknownRule (moved out of module cssrule) parser now creates Unknown At-Rules in the resulting StyleSheet. they are no longer just dumped and reported in the parser log. license ------- cssutils is published under the LGPL. download -------- download cssutils v0.53 - 040418 from http://cthedot.de/cssutils/ Needs Python 2.3. Uses xml.dom.DOMException and subclasses so may need PyXML. Tested with Python 2.3.3 on Windows XP with PyXML 0.8.3 installed. examples -------- parse a CSSStyleSheet Normally a CSS parser should ignore errors in a CSS stylesheet. So the default instantiation of CSSParser (parameter raiseExceptions=False) does not raise any exceptions but writes all errors in a parsed CSS to a log file now. You might provide your own log with parameter log=YOURLOG. This example does not use the log but would stop on the first error. from cssutils.cssparser import CSSParser p = CSSParser(raiseExceptions=True) try: css = p.parseString('body { color :red }') # or p.parse('filename.css') except xml.dom.DOMException, e: print e css.pprint() # prettyprinter s.b. outputs body { color: red; } build a new CSSStyleSheet Not all interfaces of DOM Level 2 CSS are implemented yet. But they will be provided in future versions of the cssbuilder module. The following is a simple example how to build a CSSStyleSheet object. from cssutils.cssbuilder import * # init CSSStylesheet css = StyleSheet() # build a rule r = StyleRule() r.addSelector('body') r.addSelector('b') # a second one d = StyleDeclaration() d.setProperty('color', 'red') # old addProperty is DEPRECATED r.setStyleDeclaration(d) # build @media Rule mr = MediaRule(' print, tv ') d = StyleDeclaration() d.setProperty('color', '#000') r = StyleRule('body', d) mr.addRule(r) # compose stylesheet css.addComment('basic styles') css.addComment('styles for print or tv') css.addRule(mr) css.insertRule(r, 1) # output css.pprint(2) outputs /* basic styles */ body, b { color: red; } /* styles for print or tv */ @media print, tv { body { color: #000; } } christof hoeke http://cthedot.de <P><A HREF="http://cthedot.de/cssutils/">cssutils 0.53</A> - a CSS Cascading Style Sheets library for Python (18-Apr-04)

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SC-Track Roundup 0.6.9 - an issue tracking system
by Richard Jones April 18, 2004

April 18, 2004

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I'm pleased to announce Roundup 0.6.9, a maintenance release which fixes some bugs: - - paging in classhelp popup was broken - - socket timeout error logging can fail - - hyperlink designators in message display (sf bug 931828) - - don't match retired items in RDBMS stringFind If you're upgrading from an older version of Roundup you *must* follow the "Software Upgrade" guidelines given in the maintenance documentation. Note that the Zope interface still doesn't work - it is fixed in the 0.7 development codebase. Roundup requires python 2.1.3 or later for correct operation. Python 2.3.1 or later is strongly recommended. To give Roundup a try, just download (see below), unpack and run:: python demo.py Source and documentation is available at the website: http://roundup.sourceforge.net/ Release Info (via download page): http://sourceforge.net/projects/roundup Mailing lists - the place to ask questions: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=31577 About Roundup ============= Roundup is a simple-to-use and -install issue-tracking system with command-line, web and e-mail interfaces. It is based on the winning design from Ka-Ping Yee in the Software Carpentry "Track" design competition. Note: Ping is not responsible for this project. The contact for this project is richard(a)users.sourceforge.net. Roundup manages a number of issues (with flexible properties such as "description", "priority", and so on) and provides the ability to: (a) submit new issues, (b) find and edit existing issues, and (c) discuss issues with other participants. The system will facilitate communication among the participants by managing discussions and notifying interested parties when issues are edited. One of the major design goals for Roundup that it be simple to get going. Roundup is therefore usable "out of the box" with any python 2.1+ installation. It doesn't even need to be "installed" to be operational, though a disutils-based install script is provided. It comes with two issue tracker templates (a classic bug/feature tracker and a minimal skeleton) and six database back-ends (anydbm, bsddb, bsddb3, sqlite, metakit and mysql). -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAgikBrGisBEHG6TARAhADAJwLHYIhUtvs3bL4ZeVOPzj4XuyuLwCfapmw 9L87lK9TshflCw006T2lRe8= =3jOD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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python-dev Summary for 2004-03-16 through 2004-03-31
by Brett C. April 18, 2004

April 18, 2004

python-dev Summary for 2004-03-16 through 2004-03-31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from March 16, 2004 through March 31, 2004. 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 thirty-eighth summary written by Brett Cannon (who managed to actually convince someone to employ him for the summer). To contact me, please send email to brett at python.org ; I do not have the time to keep up on comp.lang.python and thus do not always catch follow-ups posted there. 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 new code; otherwise use the current documentation as found at http://docs.python.org/ . 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. The `Python Software Foundation`_ is the non-profit organization that holds the intellectual property for Python. It also tries to forward the development and use of Python. But the PSF_ cannot do this without donations. You can make a donation at http://python.org/psf/donations.html . Every penny helps so even a small donation (you can donate through PayPal or by check) helps. .. _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 .. _PSF: .. _Python Software Foundation: http://python.org/psf/ .. contents:: .. _last summary: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2004-03-16_2004-03-31.html .. _original text file: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2004-03-16_2004-03-31.ht ===================== Summary Announcements ===================== Well, I am no longer looking for a summer job! One of my professors was gracious enough to offer me a research position with him for the summer working on Internet2 stuff so the summer job request is now gone... until next summer. =) PyCon_ happened during the timespan this summary covers. Unlike last year when emails to python-dev actually went down, there was a good amount of traffic at the conference. A good portion of this was due to the sprint on Python's core that took place. A bunch of core developers showed up for the whole weekend and used part of that time to answer emails. Great for python-dev but made my life a little difficult. =) But the sprint overall was a definite gain with various tweaks done, improvements to the profiler, and a bunch of bugs and patches closed (actually had the number of open patches and bugs have a net loss of 7 and 10 from that week, respectively; that has not happened in a while). The release schedule (and thus what is definitely planned and what can go in if it gets finished in time) was set while at PyCon. Read the summary entitled `Python 2.4 release schedule`_ below for details and links. .. _PyCon: http://www.pycon.org/ ========= Summaries ========= ---------------------------- "I want to be like Raymond!" ---------------------------- So, you want to speed up Python like Raymond Hettinger has? Well, he posted an email listing various optimizations he has on his list to try out. That specific email can be found at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043276.html This also brought back the debate of whether pure Python modules should be recoded in C for performance. See previous threads for a longer discussion on the subject. Contributing threads: - `Joys of Optimization <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043276.html>`__ - `todo (was: Joys of Optimization) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043335.html>`__ -------------- Decimal update -------------- `PEP 327`_ was revised to make certain issues more explicit and to discuss possible function naming (summarized below). This lead to a discussion about how to name various things. Although there are historical violations of the coding standard, the names should follow `PEP 7`_ and `PEP 8`_. The testing suite is also finished along with the PEP essentially being finished. .. _PEP 327: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0327.html Contributing threads: - `Changes to PEP 327: Decimal data type <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043155.html>`__ - `PEP 327: Decimal data type <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043809.html>`__ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- <in a stereotypical coach voice>Follow the coding standard, people</voice> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discussing naming conventions came up while discussing PEP 327. The basic conclusion is that older modules don't follow the coding standards laid out in `PEP 7`_ and `PEP 8`_, but that does not mean new code should be allowed to break the rules. .. _PEP 7: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0007.html .. _PEP 8: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html Contributing threads: - `Changes to PEP 327: Decimal data type <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043155.html>`__ - `(class) module names clarification <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043265.html>`__ - `(old) module names <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043286.html>`__ ---------------------------------------------------- "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" ---------------------------------------------------- The idea of redefining how 'is' operates when comparing immutable types came up. It was suggested that when two immutable objects of the same type were being compared that it should be an equivalence test instead of an identity test. For instance:: >>> x = 99 >>> y = 99 >>> x is y True while:: >>> x = 100 >>> y = 100 >>> x is y False is false. The point was made, though, that unless you are comparing to None that 'is' should not be used for comparing immutables and instead the equality operator ('==') should be used instead. There is backwards-compatibility issues with changing this. Guido pronounced that 'is' ain't changing. Contributing threads: - `A proposal has surfaced on comp.lang.python to redefine "is" <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043181.html>`__ - `redefining is <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043222.html>`__ - `(not) redefining is <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043285.html>`__ --------------------------------- Getting PyChecker into the stdlib --------------------------------- The idea of adding PyChecker_ to the stdlib came up once again. Support seems to be there but the developers of PyChecker did not speak up. PyChecker 2 is under development and that changes how PyChecker does things significantly (analyzes bytecode directly) which might be why they were mum on the topic. .. _PyChecker: http://pychecker.sf.net/ ------------------------------- Simplifying logging.basicConfig ------------------------------- Simplifying basicConfig in the logging package to making logging to a file simpler was proposed. One person suggested more examples in the documentation ala unittest. Another person disagreed. No change has been made at this point nor any specific statement as to whether any will be. Contributing threads: - `Some changes to logging <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043290.html>`__ -------------------------- A new committer amongst us -------------------------- Phillip J. Eby gained CVS commit privileges to help with development of Distutils. But Phillip has been active on python-dev for a while so I am sure he can be put to work on some other things as well. =) Contributing threads: - `new Python CVS committer <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043338.html>`__ ---------------- Working on HP-UX ---------------- Cameron Laird is still interested in working on the port of Python on HP-UX. If you are interested in helping out please contact him. Contributing threads: - `Portability: update and oblique apology <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043364.html>`__ ------------------------------------------- Binding variables for generator expressions ------------------------------------------- What would you expect in this situation using generator expressions?:: gen_exps = [] for cnt in range(10): gen_exps.append(x**2 for x in range(cnt)) If you thought that gen_exps would contain 10 generators that each return a list longer than the one previous then you like capture binding for generator expressions (capturing the values of all free variables used in the generator expression at definition time). If you though there would be 10 generators that all had the power of 2 from 0 to 9 then you like late binding (using the value of the free variables in the generator expression at execution time of the generator). Guido brought this up in his keynote for PyCon_ and said that he preferred late binding. The reasoning is that there are no surprises in terms of corner cases and having more obvious values for the free variables. The point about performance of generator expressions was also brought up using the now-standard ``sum(x**2 for range(1000))`` example. Using a list comprehension was actually slightly faster (less than 10%) then the generator expression. This is partially thanks to Raymond's tweaking of list comprehensions by adding the LIST_APPEND opcode. The rest is due to generator expressions creating an actual generator and thus having to create eval frames and playing with them. But it was pointed out that if the number passed into 'range' is raised then generator expressions quickly end up winning because the execution fits in the cache better, especially if xrange is used. Contributing threads: - `An issue recently brought up in patch #872326 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043396.html>`__ - `Possible resolution of generator expression variable... <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043443.html>`__ - `genexps slow? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043777.html>`__ -------------------------------------------------- More than you ever wanted to know about decorators -------------------------------------------------- Decorators were the topic for the latter half of March. Initially the discussion focused on where to put the list of decorators (if Guido's patch as found at http://www.python.org/sf/926860 is any indication he has a preference with the decorators coming on the line above the function/method definition) should go. With C# having a similar functionality as what is being proposed roughly following C#'s syntax was considered a good thing, albeit tweaked so that the decorator list goes on its own line (reason being the LL(1) parser is too dumb to handle it coming before the 'def' on the same line and it alleviates the issue of having a long decorator list that would a full line anyway. With the winning syntax, though, there is the issue of preexisting code and the work at interpreter prompt. The former is a problem for code that happens to have a list that is not assigned to anything before a function definition; why anyone would have a list defined that is not assigned is beyond me. As for the latter issue, that is a slight problem. To get around it you can stick the definition in an 'if' statement:: if True: [decorate, this] def marthastewart(): pass Slight pain, but it has been generally accepted that placing decorators on their own line is just so much easier to deal with aesthetically this minor inconvenience has been viewed as acceptable. After PyCon Guido talked to some people who suggested having another way of tacking on metadata separate from using descriptors, partially since C#'s version of decorators is mostly for metadata. But tacking on attributes to a function can be done using the proposed decorators by defining some auxiliary function that takes in named arguments that specify the name of the attribute and the value to set it and returns a callable that will take in a function and assign the attributes. This also brought up the discussion of setting function attributes from within a function since decorators will most likely be used to set metadata. The idea of having attributes set for the function if a name starts with '.' was brought up but Guido said he wanted to save that syntax for within a 'with' block. The other suggestion was to do ``func.attribute`` where "func" is the name of the function is being defined, but Guido gave that a -1000 vote so that ain't about to happen. Contributing threads: - `order of decorator application? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043411.html>`__ - `PEP 318 - posting draft <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043414.html>`__ - `PEP 318 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043425.html>`__ - `method decorators (PEP 318) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043528.html>`__ - `PEP 318 and syntax coloring <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043643.html>`__ - `decorators (not transformations) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043540.html>`__ - `PEP318 metaclass approach <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043589.html>`__ - `method decorators <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043613.html>`__ - `Yet Another Decorator Syntax Suggestion (YADSS) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043640.html>`__ - `PEP 318: Singleton decorator <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043682.html>`__ - `PEP 318: Preserve function signatures <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043683.html>`__ - `PEP 318: Security use case <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043684.html>`__ - `PEP 318: Decorators last before colon <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043685.html>`__ - `PEP 318: Set attribs with .name = value <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043686.html>`__ - `Re: Python-Dev Digest, Vol 8, Issue 91 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043698.html>`__ --------------------------- Python 2.4 release schedule --------------------------- If you read `PEP 320`_ you will notice an alpha is currently planned in July with a possible release in September if the alphas and betas go well. To see what is planned for this release read the PEP. Looks like some really cool new additions to Python (under the hood, stdlib, and to syntax) might make this release. .. _PEP 320: http://python.org/peps/pep-0320.html Contributing threads: - `Timing for Py2.4 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043681.html>`__ ------------------------------------------ Cutting down on string creation at startup ------------------------------------------ Martin v. Loewis discovered that Python in CVS created about 12,000 strings while Python 2.2 created 8,000 strings. Martin subsequently changed 'marshal' so as to share strings that are the same instead of having to constantly create strings, discover they have been interned, and then destroy the second copy. Contributing threads: - `Python startup time: String objects <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043475.html>`__ ---------------------------------- f_tstate going the way of the dodo ---------------------------------- In case you don't catch the meaning of the title, f_tstate is going to be removed. Contributing threads: - `Last chance! <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043594.html>`__ --------------------------------------------------------------- Tentative fix for OpenVMS and its dislike of UNIVERSAL_NEWLINES --------------------------------------------------------------- See http://www.python.org/sf/903339 for the proposed patch. Contributing threads: - ` OpenVMS file system and UNIVERSAL_NEWLINES <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043660.html>`__ ---------------------------------------------- The hell that is floating point representation ---------------------------------------------- The discussion came up over the output of ``repr(1.1)``, which is '1.1000000000000001' (although, apparently, a few years back this was not the case). The objection was risen that this can surprise people since repr is what 'marshal' uses for writing .pyc files. But the counter-argument was that this forces people to deal with the issues inherent in binary floating point. Plus it makes the value consistent across platforms if you pass around a .pyc file since the value the programmer used is explicitly stated. The status quo is staying put. It was also pointed out that decimal floating point has similar issues as binary floating point, but at least you get to specify the accuracy at the cost of speed. Contributing threads: - `Expert floats <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043703.html>`__ - `repr(1.1) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043726.html>`__ ---------------------------------------- Relative imports getting a bunch of dots ---------------------------------------- For `PEP 328`_ (which deals with relative imports of modules), Guido pronounced that he prefers the multiple dots to delineate going up a level in the directory hierarchy for handling relative imports. The other big issue with this PEP is backwards-compatibility. Since this will introduce relative paths, by default all imports that don't have at least a leading dot for where something is being imported will be considered absolute. This means that if you want to import something in the same directory as the module you are importing into you will have to specify that it is a relative import unless your current directory is in sys.path . The PEP explains the issues rather well. .. _PEP 328: htttp://www.python.org/peps/pep-0328.html Contributing threads: - `PEP 328 -- relative and multi-line import <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043739.html>`__

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ZODB 3.3 alpha 3 released
by Jeremy Hylton April 17, 2004

April 17, 2004

I'm pleased to announce the release of ZODB2 3.3 alpha 3. This release includes support for new-style persistent classes and multi-version concurrency control. It's an alpha release, so we could use feedback on the new features and helping testing them. The 3.3a3 release requires Python 2.3. It contains the code that is slated to be in Zope 2.8. This version of ZODB supports Zope 2 and Zope 3. You can download a source tarball or Windows installer from http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.3 This release contains a lot of changes and improvements since the previous alpha releases. The transaction API and implementation have been overhauled and the persistence API has seen some changes to accommodate Zope 3. New features include persistent weak references, an add() method for ZODB connections, and explicit transaction manager objects. The news file lists the changes in more detail: http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.3/NEWS.html The new features in 3.3 represent major changes to ZODB. Support for new-style classes means that ZODB programmers can use the new class features introduced in Python 2.2, like properties and descriptors. It also means that ZODB no longer uses ExtensionClass, which caused many subtle incompatibilities with other classes. The multi-version concurrency control feature represents the end of read conflicts. If a transaction encounters a conflict, it reads older revisions of the object rather than raising a ReadConflictError. This feature allows read-only transactions to see a consistent view of the database without need to handle read conflicts and restart the transaction. I'd also like to include a personal note: This is the last ZODB release that I will be actively involved in. I will be starting a new job next month at Google in New York City. I've enjoyed working with everyone in the ZODB and Zope communities; I'll be looking forward to the ZODB 3.3 final release along with you. Enjoy! -- Jeremy Hylton <http://www.python.org/~jeremy/>

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IMDbPY 1.1 released
by alberanid＠libero.it April 17, 2004

April 17, 2004

IMDbPY 1.1 is available here: http://imdbpy.sourceforge.net/ IMDbPY is a Python package useful to retrieve and manage the data of the IMDb movie database. In this release, support for information about people was added, some bugs were fixed and the new IMDb search system is used. IMDbPY aims to provide an easy way to access the IMDb's database using a Python script. Platform-independent and written in pure Python, it's theoretically independent from the data source (since IMDb provides two or three different interfaces to their database). IMDbPY is mainly intended for programmers and developers who want to build their Python programs using the IMDbPY package, but some example scripts - useful for simple users - are included. So far the only data source supported is the IMDb web server. -- To contact me: http://digilander.libero.it/alberanid/

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New mailing list to discuss zope interfaces
by Jim Fulton April 16, 2004

April 16, 2004

I've created a new mailing list at: http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/interface-dev to discuss Zope interfaces. Zope interfaces provide a means of: - Documenting and specifying object behavior - Defining component connections To find out more about Zope interfaces, see the Zope Interface Wiki at: http://zope.org/Wikis/Interfaces Jim -- Jim Fulton mailto:jim@zope.com Python Powered! CTO (540) 361-1714 http://www.python.org Zope Corporation http://www.zope.com http://www.zope.org

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ANNOUNCE: Python module for PLI apps in Verilog using VPI
by tom.sheffler＠sbcglobal.net April 16, 2004

April 16, 2004

There have been a number of attempts of linking Python and Verilog. APVM embeds the Python interpreter in Verilog using the VPI interface. It also presents an object-oriented interface to storing instance data and registering simulation callbacks. This package has a few other features that help simplify writing PLI applications and has been shown to work with Icarus, NC, Modelsim and VCS. This initial release (0.10) has a short paper describing its design philosophy and is distributed with a number of useful and illustrative examples. The release is hosted at Source Forge at http://apvm.sourceforge.net -T

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ANN: dotamatic poster and "art" creator
by Roger Binns April 15, 2004

April 15, 2004

dotamatic is a program that allows you to print out images across many sheets of paper, using a variety of styles for the pixels. It was inspired by The Rasterbator http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/ http://dotamatic.sourceforge.net It all started due to a thread on comp.lang.python: http://tinyurl.com/36gwg It is also a demonstration of distributing a program written in Python and wxPython that can be installed without the end users being aware of that, or of needing to have Python or any accessories installed (provided for Windows, Linux and Mac). It also demonstrates printing and online help. Roger

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ANN: Atox 0.4 released
by mlh＠furu.idi.ntnu.no April 14, 2004

April 14, 2004

What is it? =========== Atox is a framework for automated markup. With it one can quite easily write custom scripts for converting plain text into XML in any way one wishes. Atox is normally used as a command-line script, using a simple XML language to specify the desired transformation from text to markup, but it is also possible to build custom parsers using the Atox library. The name (short for ASCII-to-XML) is inspired by such UNIX tools and system functions as atops and atoi. What can it do? =============== The examples in the distribution demonstrate how you can use Atox to: - Mark up a (relatively simple) technical document (the Atox manual); - Mark up code blocks only through indentation; - Nest lists through indentation - Discern between different indentation "shapes" (e.g. a block quote versus a description list item); - Transform simple LaTeX into XML; - Add XML "syntax highlighting" to Python code; - Mark up screenplays or stageplays, largely based on indentation; - Mark up simple fictional prose; - Mark up simple tables. What's new in 0.4? ================== These are the changes I've made: - Made the error handling slightly more user-friendly. - Added some basic improvements to the command-line interface (the '-e', '-f' and '-o' switches, as well the ability to use multiple input files or standard input). Note that the new calling convention is incompatible with the previous version, in that the format file is no longer supplied as an argument. - Normalized newline-handling. - Added the utility tags 'ax:block', 'ax:sob' (start-of-block) and 'ax:eob' (end-of-block). - Fixed an important bug in the indentation code, which affected 'ax:indented'. - Made empty sequences legal. - Added support for config files. Where can I get it? =================== Atox is hosted at SourceForge (http://atox.sf.net) and the current release (0.4) is available for download via its project page (http://sf.net/projects/atox). The Small Print =============== Atox is released under the MIT license. It comes with no warranty of any kind. Also, even though the current version works well, and the project is currently (as per early 2004) being actively developed, there is no guarantee of continued support. What you see is what you get. -- Magnus Lie Hetland "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay http://hetland.org to live in the land of the free." -- C. M. Burns

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ANN: PyMedia 1.2.0
by "Dmitry Borisov=?koi8-r?Q?=22=20?= April 14, 2004

April 14, 2004

Hi, Just wanted to let you know that PyMedia 1.2.0 is out. PyMedia is a media library for Python based on libavcodec and libavformat. It includes following features: 1. Audio decoding/encoding. 2. Video decoding/encoding. 3. Direct access to sound device with ability to pause/stop get position 4. Direct access to cdda tracks for easy grabbing and encoding Audio CDs 5. Simple interface and portability( Windows/Linux ) Just check the http://pymedia.sourceforge.net and download latest version( 1.2.0 ). You may find some really handy scripts in examples directory. These are: Video player( vplayer.py ), requires pydfb( http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=86491&package_id=1074… ) or pygame 1.6 patched with Overlay support( http://66.159.221.186/pygame-1.6-overlay.patch.gz ) Audio player( aplayer.py ) CDDA grabber( read_cdda_track.py ) Video recoder( encode_video.py, recode_video.py ) Audio recoder( recode_audio.py ) Thank you, Dmitry/

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