Mailman 3 February 2005 - Python-announce-list

python-dev Summary for 2005-01-01 through 2005-01-15
by Brett C 07 Feb '05

07 Feb '05

This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from January 01, 2005 through January 15, 2005. 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 fifty-sixth summary written by Brett Cannon (I don't want to do my homework). 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/2004-12-16_2004-12-31.html .. _original text file: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-01-01_2005-01-15.ht ===================== Summary Announcements ===================== PyCon_ will be upon us come late March! Still time to plan to go. A warning on the thoroughness off this summary is in order. While trying to delete a single thread of email I managed to accidentally delete my entire python-dev mailbox. I did the best I could to retrieve the emails but it's possible I didn't resuscitate all of my emails, so I may have overlooked something. .. _PyCon: http://www.pycon.org/ ======= Summary ======= ------------- PEP movements ------------- tip:: PEP updates by email are available as a topic from the `Python-checkins`_ mailing list. `PEP 246`_ was a major topic of discussion during the time period covered by this summary. This all stemmed from `Guido's blog`_ entries on optional type checking. This led to a huge discussion on many aspects of protocols, interfaces, and adaptation and the broadening of this author's vocabulary to include "Liskov violation". "Monkey typing" also became a new term to know thanks to Phillip J. Eby's proto-PEP on the topic (found at http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/MonkeyTyping). Stemming from the phrase "monkey see, monkey do", it's Phillip version of taking PEP 246 logically farther (I think; the whole thing is more than my currently burned-out-on-school brain can handle right now). .. _Python-checkins: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-checkins .. _PEP 246: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0246.html .. _Guido's blog: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp?blogger=guido Contributing threads: - `getattr and __mro__ <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050907.html>`__ - `Son of PEP 246, redux <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050972.html>`__ - `PEP 246: lossless and stateless <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051023.html>`__ - `PEP 246: LiskovViolation as a name <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050878.html>`__ - `"Monkey Typing" pre-PEP, partial draft <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051124.html>`__ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Optional type checking: how to inadvertently cause a flame war worse than decorators ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ `Guido's blog`_ had comments on the idea of adding optional static type checking to Python. While just comments in a blog, it caused a massive response from people, mostly negative from what I gathered. After Guido discussed things some more it culminated in a blog entry found at http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=87182 that lays out what his actual plans are. I highly recommend reading it since it suggests adding optional run-time type checking for function arguments along with some other proposals. All of this led to `PEP 246`_ getting updated. For some more details on that see the `PEP movements`_ section of this summary. And if there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, it's that when Alex Martelli and Phillip J. Eby start a technical discussion it's going to be long, in-depth, complex, and lead to my inbox being brimming in python-dev email. ------------------------------ Let's get the AST branch done! ------------------------------ Guido posted an email to the list stating he would like to to make progress towards integrating "things like type inferencing, integrating PyChecker, or optional static type checking" into Python. In order to make that easier he put out a request that people work on the AST branch and finish it. For those that don't know about Python's back-end, the compiler as it stands now takes the parse tree from the parser and emits bytecode directly from that. This is far from optimal since the parse tree is more verbose than needed and it is not the easiest thing to work with. The AST branch attempts to fix this by taking a more traditional approach to compiling. This means the parse tree is used to generate an AST (abstract syntax tree; and even more technically could be considered a control flow graph in view of how it is implemented) which in turn is used to emit bytecode. The AST itself is much easier to work with when compared to the parse tree; better to know you are working with an 'if' guard thanks to it being an 'if' node in the AST than checking if the parse tree statement you are working with starts with 'if' and ends with a ':'. While all of this sounds great, the issue is the AST branch is not finished yet. It is not entirely far off, but new features from 2.4 (decorators and generator expressions) need to be added along with more bug fixing and clean up. This means the AST branch is going to get finished for 2.5 somehow. But help is needed. While the usual suspects who have previously contributed to the branch are hoping to finish it, more help is always appreciated. If you care to get involved, check out the AST branch (tagged as 'ast-branch' in CVS; see the `python-dev FAQ`_ on how to do a tagged branch checkout), read Python/compile.txt and just dive in! There will also be a sprint on the AST branch at PyCon. .. _python-dev FAQ: http://www.python.org/dev/devfaq.html Contributing threads: - `Please help complete the AST branch <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050606.html>`__ - `Will ASTbranch compile on windows yet? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050633.html>`__ - `ast branch pragmatics <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050690.html>`__ - `Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Python pythonrun.c, 2.161.2.15, 2.161.2.16 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050786.html>`__ -------------------------------- Ditching unbound methods in Py3k -------------------------------- Guido suggested removing unbound methods from Python since their usefulness of checking their first argument and other slight differences from functions just didn't seem worth keeping around and complicating the language. So the idea seems sound. But then people with uses for the extra information kept in unbound methods (im_func and im_self) popped up. To make the long thread short, enough people stepped up mentioning uses they had for the information for Guido to retract the suggestion in the name of backwards compatibility. But unbound methods are now on the list of things to go in Python 3000. Contributing threads: - `Let's get rid of unbound methods <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050625.html>`__ - `Getting rid of unbound methods: patch available <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051128.html>`__ - `PEP 246 - concrete assistance to developers of new adapter classes <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051246.html>`__ ------------------------------------------ Getting exceptions to be new-style classes ------------------------------------------ A patch to allow exceptions to be new-style classes is currently at http://www.python.org/1104669 . The plan is to get that patch in order, apply it, and as long as a ton of code does not break from exceptions moving from classic to new-style classes it will be made permanent in 2.5 . This in no way touches on the major changes as touched upon in a `previous summary <http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2004-09-01_2004-09-15.html#cleaning-the-e…>`__ which will need a PEP to get the hierarchy cleaned up and discuss any possible changes to bar 'except' statements. Contributing threads: - `Exceptions *must*? be old-style classes? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051097.html>`__ ----------------------------- Recent IBM patents and Python ----------------------------- note:: contributed by Jim Jewett Current python policy is that all submissions must be unemcumbered by intellectual property claims. See http://www.python.org/psf/psf-contributor-agreement.html IBM has recently released several patents for use in Open Source Software, with the restriction that they can revoke the grant if you sue to enforce any Intellectual Property rights against any Open Source project. Is this an acceptable license restriction, or should code covered by these patents be rejected? No explicit decision was made. Contributing threads: - `Recent IBM Patent releases <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050919.html>`__ =============== Skipped Threads =============== - Mac questions - 2.3.5 schedule, and something I'd like to get in - csv module TODO list - an idea for improving struct.unpack api - Minor change to behaviour of csv module - PATCH/RFC for AF_NETLINK support - logging class submission - frame.f_locals is writable - redux: fractional seconds in strptime - Darwin's realloc(...) implementation never shrinks allocations

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[ANN] PyComicsViewer 0.9.7
by ionutz 07 Feb '05

07 Feb '05

PyComicsViewer-0.9.7 has been released. What is PyComicsViewer? ======================= Is a comics viewer written in python, PyGTK and PIL. I made it as I didn't fully like any of the existing viewers and I wanted something that works the same (nice) way on both Linux and Windows. Because of the way it was implemented, you can also use it like a kind of image browser/viewer, but this is not its primary destination. Browsing images from uncompressed directories is provided because resulted naturally from the implementation and because I've seen some people that distribute their scaned comics uncompressed. Changes in 0.9.7 (2005/02/07) ============================= * added a navigation pane on the left side of the main window * launch decompressors with subprocess.Popen from Python2.4 * made setup to work on Win$$, too (with VCToolkit 2003) * upgraded to Python2.4 Licensing ========= PyComicsViewer is released under the GPL. Where can I get it? =================== Home page: http://borco.net/html/PyComicsViewer/ Latest version: http://borco.net/html/PyComicsViewer/PyComicsViewer-0.9.7.tar.gz Cheers,

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Twisted Sprint: Hobart Australia, 1-3 April 2005
by Mary Gardiner 07 Feb '05

07 Feb '05

Australian Twisted developers and friends are holding a Twisted Sprint in Hobart this year: Dates: Friday 1 April 2005 - Sunday 3 April 2005 Location: Thanks to Nunatak Systems, Chris Armstrong, Jonathan Lange and Timothy Stebbing we've got locations in Sandy Bay, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. See the wiki link below for more info. The sprint is going to be fairly informal: no attendance fees, no formal registration system. The flipside is that you'll be responsible for organising travel, accommodation and meals. While we haven't decided on a firm goal or goals for the sprint, we'll be working on code destined for the TM Labs projects (that is, the Twisted subversion respository). I've set up a temporary wiki for notes about the sprint, including topics, venues and accommodation options: http://users.puzzling.org/users/mary/TwistedSprint/moin.cgi/FrontPage If you're going to come along, please let us know ASAP, both by replying to this mail (off list) and by adding your name to http://users.puzzling.org/users/mary/TwistedSprint/moin.cgi/SprintAttendees (I want people to email me as well so that I have contact details for everyone!). -Mary

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htmldata 1.0.6
by C. Barnes 07 Feb '05

07 Feb '05

htmldata 1.0.6 is available. http://oregonstate.edu/~barnesc/htmldata/ The htmldata module allows one to translate HTML documents back and forth to list data structures. This allows for programmatic reading and writing of HTML documents, with much flexibility. Functions are also available for extracting and/or modifying all URLs present in the HTML or stylesheets of a document. Version 1.0.6 is a bugfix release offering: * Improved URL extraction from stylesheets. I have found this library useful for writing robots, for "wrapping" all of the URLs on websites inside my own proxy CGI script, for filtering HTML, and for doing flexible wget-like mirroring. It keeps things as simple as possible, so it should be easy to learn. Supports XHTML, too. - Connelly Barnes __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

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ANN: 'twander' 3.193 Released And Available
by Tim Daneliuk 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

'twander' Version 3.193 is now released and available for download at: http://www.tundraware.com/Software/twander The last public release was 3.160. Existing users are encouraged to upgrade to this release as it has a number of bug fixes and several significant new features including: - It is now possible to "filter" which files even appear in the interface using an arbitrary (Python) regular expression. This is very handy in large directories with, say, thousands of files, when you only want to deal with some small subset of those files. - The configuration language now supports "Execution Variables" - aka "backtick" variables - for embedding calls to external programs into the configuration. - User prompting now supports default values. You can set a user prompt and pre-load the most likely response to the question in the reply dialog. Complete details of all fixes, changes, and new features can be found in the WHATSNEW.txt file included in the distribution. Users are strongly encouraged to join the twander-users mailing list as described in the documentation. A FreeBSD port has been submitted as well. What Is 'twander'? ------------------ 'twander' is a macro-programmable Filesystem Browser that runs on both Unix-like systems as well as Win32 systems. It embraces the best ideas of both similar GUI-driven programs (Konqueror, Windows Explorer) as well as text-based interfaces (Midnight Commander, List, Sweep). Or, If You Prefer The "Elevator Pitch" -------------------------------------- 'twander' is: - A better file browser for Unix and Win32. (Tested on FreeBSD, Linux, Win32.) - A way to make browsing the same on all the OSs you use. - A macro-programmable tool that lets *you* define the features. - A GUI navigation front-end for your shell. - A way to "can" workflows for your technically-challenged colleagues. - A way to free yourself from the shackles of the mouse. - A way to significantly speed up your day-to-day workflow. - A Python/Tkinter application - about 5000 lines of code/comments - A RCT (Really Cool Tool) that will have you addicted in a day or two See the web page for more information, a screen shot, and the complete documentation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tim Daneliuk tundra(a)tundraware.com

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ANN: SPE 0.7.2.A IDE with wxGlade, Uml & Blender support
by s_t_a_n_i＠yahoo.com 05 Feb '05

05 Feb '05

Spe is a python IDE with auto-indentation, auto completion, call tips, syntax coloring, uml viewer, syntax highlighting, class explorer, source index, auto todo list, sticky notes, integrated pycrust shell, python file browser, recent file browser, drag&drop, context help, ... Special is its blender support with a blender 3d object browser and its ability to run interactively inside blender. Spe ships with wxGlade (gui designer), PyChecker (source code doctor) and Kiki (regular expression console). Spe is extensible with wxGlade. The sidebar now features a file browser. I'm now trying to form a team for future development of SPE. Besides me four people will join the project: - Sam Widmer for CVS and bugfixes. So soon more collaboration on SPE will be possible. - Nir Aides (author of rpdb) for helping implementing the remote debugger - Kevin Walzer for the OS X Port of SPE. Please contact him for Mac specific issues. Spe for the Mac will be distributed through: http://www.wordtech-software.com/spe.html - Jelle Feringa for documentation. The goal is to provide a pdf manual with the SPE distribution based on the SPE wiki: http://www.stani.be/spe/wiki Anyone who has comments or wants to edit the wiki as well can contact Jelle. If you like SPE, please contribute by coding, writing documentation or donating. I would like to thank especially Michael Balk, who gave the largest donation ever to SPE. Also I would like to thank Michael Foord, who made SPE part of a new Python distribution, called "movable python". It gives you the possibility to carry your favorite developping environment on a USB stick. So you can continue your work on any computer or test your modules for different python versions. This distribution opens a lot of new possibilities, check it out!! For more info, visit http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/programs.shtml#movpy :Batteries included: - Kiki: Regular Expression (regex) console. For more info: http://project5.freezope.org/kiki/index.html - PyChecker: PyChecker is a tool for finding bugs in python source code. It finds problems that are typically caught by a compiler for less dynamic languages, like C and C++. It is similar to lint. For more info: http://pychecker.sourceforge.net - wxGlade: wxGlade is a GUI designer written in Python with the popular GUI toolkit wxPython, that helps you create wxWindows/wxPython user interfaces. As you can guess by the name, its model is Glade, the famous GTK+/GNOME GUI builder, with which wxGlade shares the philosophy and the look & feel (but not a line of code). For more info: http://wxglade.sourceforge.net :New features: - sidebar browser (iniated by Attila Magyar) :Bug fixes: - segfaults in Browser - indentation can now be different from 4 - mac osx fixes for kiki, wxGlade & XRC - scrollbars of UML view - initial sizing and positioning are now restored :Donations(177.20euro): - Michael Balk - Jason Powell - David Ko Feng - Winchell Chung - Matthias Haberkorn - Kristjan Kannike - Robert Cowham - Andre Roberge - Chris S :Contributors: - Sam Widmer - Attila Magyar - Kevin Walzer - Thurston Stone :Requirements: - full python 2.3+ - wxpython 2.5.3.8+ - optional blender 2.35+ :Links: - Homepage: http://spe.pycs.net - Website: http://projects.blender.org/projects/spe/ - Screenshots: http://spe.pycs.net/pictures/index.html - Forum: http://projects.blender.org/forum/?group_id=30 - RSS feed: http://spe.pycs.net/weblog/rss.xml

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[Ann] ANTLR 2.7.5 released with native Python support
by marq.kole＠philips.com 04 Feb '05

04 Feb '05

ANTLR 2.7.5 has been released, which includes full native Python support What is ANTLR ============= ANTLR, ANother Tool for Language Recognition is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, compilers, and translators from grammatical descriptions containing Java, C#, C++, or Python actions. ANTLR is popular because it is easy to understand, powerful, flexible, generates human-readable output, and comes with complete source. ANTLR provides excellent support for tree construction, tree walking, and translation. There are currently about 5,000 ANTLR source downloads a month. As ANTLR is an LL(k) compiler generator, it is much more flexible and powerful than Yacc/Lex types of translators. It also has excellent support for error-handling built in. ANTLR has extensive documentation, a load of examples in the source distribution, and a very active mailing list. ANTLR is supported by its development team as well as by its community of users all over the world. What's new in version 2.7.5 =========================== The 2.7.5 version of ANTLR is the first with full native Python support. ANTLR requirs Java to create the recognizers, compilers, and translators, but the generated code is pure Python. A lot of examples of using ANTLR with Python are available in the source distribution. ANTLR works on all types of UNIX platforms as well as Windows. For the latter OS binary installers are also available. Licensing ========= We reserve no legal rights to the ANTLR -- it is fully in the public domain. See the Software License on the ANTLR website for details. http://www.antlr.org/license.html Where can I get it? =================== You can download it from the ANTLR website: http://www.antlr.org Best Regards, The ANTLR Development Team

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IMDbPY 1.7 released
by alberanid＠libero.it 03 Feb '05

03 Feb '05

IMDbPY 1.7 is available (tgz, deb, rpm, exe) from: http://imdbpy.sourceforge.net/ IMDbPY is a Python package useful to retrieve and manage the data of the IMDb movie database. This is mostly a bug fixes release; along with IMDbPY 1.7 I've released imdbpyweb (a web interface) and a new version of vdbpy (to manage the VideoDB database with IMDbPY). 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 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 the end users - are included. -- Davide Alberani <alberanid(a)libero.it> [PGP KeyID: 0x465BFD47] http://erlug.linux.it/~da/

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ANN: PyDev 0.9.0 released
by Fabio Zadrozny 03 Feb '05

03 Feb '05

Hi All, PyDev - Python IDE (Python development enviroment for Eclipse) version 0.9.0 has just been released. This release supports python 2.4 and has PyLint 0.6 integrated. Code completion had some improvements too. Check the homepage for more details (http://pydev.sourceforge.net/). Regards, Fabio Zadrozny ------------------------------------------------------ Software Developer ESSS - Engineering Simulation and Scientific Software www.esss.com.br

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Python Security Advisory PSF-2005-001 - SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
by Guido van Rossum 03 Feb '05

03 Feb '05

http://www.python.org/security/PSF-2005-001/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Python Security Advisory Advisory ID: PSF-2005-001 Issue Date: February 3, 2005 Product: Python Versions: 2.2 all versions, 2.3 prior to 2.3.5, 2.4 CVE Names: CAN-2005-0089 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java. The Python development team has discovered a flaw in the SimpleXMLRPCServer library module which can give remote attackers access to internals of the registered object or its module or possibly other modules. The flaw only affects Python XML-RPC servers that use the register_instance() method to register an object without a _dispatch() method. Servers using only register_function() are not affected. On vulnerable XML-RPC servers, a remote attacker may be able to view or modify globals of the module(s) containing the registered instance's class(es), potentially leading to data loss or arbitrary code execution. If the registered object is a module, the danger is particularly serious. For example, if the registered module imports the os module, an attacker could invoke the os.system() function. But the attack is not limited to registered object modules; for example, the code in the Python cookbook recipe at http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/165375 is vulnerable to an attack using im_func.func_globals.update which allows reading or modifying the global variable accessList. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2005-0089 to this issue. Python 2.3.5 will be released from www.python.org within a few days containing a fix for this issue. Python 2.4.1 will be released later this month containing the same fix. Patches for Python 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 are also immediately available: - http://python.org/security/PSF-2005-001/patch-2.2.txt (Python 2.2) - http://python.org/security/PSF-2005-001/patch.txt (Python 2.3, 2.4) Note that these patches disable recursive traversal, potentially resulting in reduced functionality of XML-RPC applications depending on this feature. -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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