Mailman 3 April 2005 - Python-announce-list

[ANN] Release 0.27 of Task Coach
by Frank Niessink 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

Hi all, I am pleased to announce release 0.27 of Task Coach. This release adds one feature: - Tasks can have a budget. You can set a time budget for tasks. If you also track effort for that task you can tack how much of the budget is still left. What is Task Coach? Task Coach is a simple task manager that allows for hierarchical tasks, i.e. tasks in tasks. Task Coach is open source (GPL) and is developed using Python and wxPython. You can download Task Coach from: http://taskcoach.niessink.com https://sourceforge.net/projects/taskcoach/ A binary installer is available for Windows XP, in addition to the source distribution. Thanks, Frank

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Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Apr 4)
by Simon Brunning 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

QOTW: "Paraphrasing Occam, I would say 'don't multiply base classes without necessity'. ;)" - Michele Simionato "The world diversifies, the world congeals." - Raymond Hettinger (commenting on the fact that py.test happily runs unittest test suites) "I can think of no better reason for a programmer to regularly learn languages: 'our tools warp our thinking.' A programmer is a professionally warped thinker." - Scott David Daniels Highlight of the week; Python 2.4.1 final is out: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python.announce/msg/b82afbc72… The effbot was once asked how to find an object's name: "The same way as you get the name of that cat you found on your porch: the cat (object) itself cannot tell you its name, and it doesn't really care -- so the only way to find out what it's called is to ask all your neighbours (namespaces) if it's their cat (object) ... and don't be surprised if you'll find that it's known by many names, or no name at all!" Duncan Booth shows us how to ask the neighbours: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/237dc92f3629dd9a Ian Bicking and David Hansson talk marketing: http://blog.ianbicking.org/why-web-programming-matters-most.html http://www.loudthinking.com/arc/000432.html Incidentally, when will a hero(ine) emerge to do for GUI toolkits what the PyWebOff has started for Web frameworks? A couple of nice decorator examples this week: Scott David Daniels suggests that a decorator might tidy up wxPython event handlers, and Oren Tirosh shows us how to hide globals from a function: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/338134f3bd7c439c http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/d34e97cc2ae284d6 Guido demonstrates multimethods, and Ian Bicking gives us an alternative implementation using generic functions: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=101605 http://blog.ianbicking.org/more-on-multimethods.html Is Python supposed to be boring? http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/c… Evan Jones shows us How to Use UTF-8 with Python: http://evanjones.ca/python-utf8.html ======================================================================== Everything Python-related you want is probably one or two clicks away in these pages: Python.org's Python Language Website is the traditional center of Pythonia http://www.python.org Notice especially the master FAQ http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html PythonWare complements the digest you're reading with the marvelous daily python url http://www.pythonware.com/daily Mygale is a news-gathering webcrawler that specializes in (new) World-Wide Web articles related to Python. http://www.awaretek.com/nowak/mygale.html While cosmetically similar, Mygale and the Daily Python-URL are utterly different in their technologies and generally in their results. For far, FAR more Python reading than any one mind should absorb, much of it quite interesting, several pages index much of the universe of Pybloggers. http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/PythonProgrammersWeblog http://www.planetpython.org/ http://mechanicalcat.net/pyblagg.html comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software. Be sure to scan this newsgroup weekly. http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python.announce Brett Cannon continues the marvelous tradition established by Andrew Kuchling and Michael Hudson of intelligently summarizing action on the python-dev mailing list once every other week. http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ The Python Package Index catalogues packages. http://www.python.org/pypi/ The somewhat older Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collects references to all sorts of Python resources. http://www.vex.net/~x/parnassus/ Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group mailing lists http://www.python.org/sigs/ The Python Business Forum "further[s] the interests of companies that base their business on ... Python." http://www.python-in-business.org Python Success Stories--from air-traffic control to on-line match-making--can inspire you or decision-makers to whom you're subject with a vision of what the language makes practical. http://www.pythonology.com/success The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has replaced the Python Consortium as an independent nexus of activity. It has official responsibility for Python's development and maintenance. http://www.python.org/psf/ Among the ways you can support PSF is with a donation. http://www.python.org/psf/donate.html Kurt B. Kaiser publishes a weekly report on faults and patches. http://www.google.com/groups?as_usubject=weekly%20python%20patch Cetus collects Python hyperlinks. http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html Python FAQTS http://python.faqts.com/ The Cookbook is a collaborative effort to capture useful and interesting recipes. http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python Among several Python-oriented RSS/RDF feeds available are http://www.python.org/channews.rdf http://bootleg-rss.g-blog.net/pythonware_com_daily.pcgi http://python.de/backend.php For more, see http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=python&ShowStatus=all The old Python "To-Do List" now lives principally in a SourceForge reincarnation. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html The online Python Journal is posted at pythonjournal.cognizor.com. editor(a)pythonjournal.com and editor(a)pythonjournal.cognizor.com welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work. del.icio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary. It already aggregates quite a bit of Python intelligence. http://del.icio.us/tag/python *Py: the Journal of the Python Language* http://www.pyzine.com Archive probing tricks of the trade: http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python&num=100 http://groups.google.com/groups?meta=site%3Dgroups%26group%3Dcomp.lang.pyth… Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here: http://www.ddj.com/topics/pythonurl/ (requires subscription) http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=python-url+group:comp.lang.python*&s… http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html (dormant) or http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lan… Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome. E-mail to <Python-URL(a)phaseit.net> should get through. To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning (approximately), ask <claird(a)phaseit.net> to subscribe. Mention "Python-URL!". -- The Python-URL! Team-- Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.

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Europython 2005 is now accepting talk submissions
by jacob＠cd.chalmers.se 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

Europython 2005 is now accepting talk submissions! Find out more at http://www.europython.org Just as last year, we have a Refereed Paper Track. Last day for proposing a refereed paper is 22 April 2005. For regular talks, we have the following tracks: Business Education Python Frameworks Python Language Science Social skills and General Topics Zope/Plone We also have a special track for "Misfits" this year. It is for any topic that is Python related but doesn't fit in any of the above categories. Last day for submitting talks to the regular tracks is 1 May 2005. On top of this, we will have two tracks of Lightning Talks; one for Zope/plone and one for other topics. You can register talks for these all the time until the Lightning Talk sessions end, or the schedule is filled, whichever comes first. Europython 2005 will be held 27-29 June at the Chalmers University of Techchnology, Göteborg, Sweden. Registration will open in mid-April. We hope this will become the best Europython Conference ever! With your help it can. We are still seeking volunteers to help us with a number of things. We have a recent vacancy as track chair for Python Frameworks, and it is not too late to revive the Applications Track. We also need people to help out in the reception during the conference. Send an email to europython(a)python.org. Jacob Hallén Head organiser --

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python-dev Summary for 2005-03-16 through 2005-03-31 (my last)
by Brett C. 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

[The HTML version of this Summary is available at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-03-16_2005-03-31.html] ===================== Summary Announcements ===================== --------------- My last summary --------------- So, after nearly 2.5 years, this is my final python-dev Summary. Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer will be taking over for me starting with the April 1 - April 15 summary (and no, this is not an elaborate April Fool's). I have learned a ton during my time doing the Summaries and I appreciate python-dev allowing me to do them all this time. Hopefully I will be able to contribute more now in a programming capacity thanks to having more free time. -------------------- PyCon was fantastic! -------------------- For those of you who missed PyCon, you missed a great one! It is actually my favorite PyCon to date. Already looking forward to next year. -------------------- Python fireside chat -------------------- Scott David Daniels requested a short little blurb from me expounding on my thoughts on Python. Not one to pass on an opportunity to just open myself and possibly shoot myself in the foot, I figured I would take up the idea. So here we go... First, I suspect Python 3000 stuff will start to make its way into Python. Stuff that doesn't break backwards compatibility will most likely start to be implemented as we head toward the Python 2.9 barrier (Guido has stated several times that there will never be a Python 2.10). Things that are not backwards-compatible will most likely end up being hashed out in various PEPs. All of this will allow the features in Python 3000 to be worked in over time so there is not a huge culture shock. As for things behind the scenes, work on the back-end will move forward. Guido himself has suggested that JIT work should be looked into (according to an interview at http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1759,1778272,00.asp). I know I plan to fiddle with the back-end to see if the compiler can be made to do more work. Otherwise I expect changes to be made, flame wars to come and go, and for someone else to write the python-dev Summaries. =) ========= Summaries ========= ---------------- Python 2.4.1 out ---------------- Anthony Baxter, on behalf of python-dev, has released `Python 2.4.1`_. .. _Python 2.4.1: http://www.python.org/2.4.1/ Contributing threads: - `RELEASED Python 2.4.1, release candidate 1 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/051992.html>`__ - `RELEASED Python 2.4.1, release candidate 2 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052270.html>`__ - `BRANCH FREEZE for 2.4.1 final, 2005-03-30 00:00 UTC <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052444.html>`__ - `RELEASED Python 2.4.1 (final) <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052467.html>`__ ----------------- AST branch update ----------------- I, along with some other people, sprinted on the `AST branch`_ at PyCon. This led to a much more fleshed out design document (found in Python/`compile.txt`_ in the AST branch), the ability to build on Windows, and applying Nick Coghlan's fix for hex numbers. Nick also did some more patch work and asked how AST work should be tagged. There is now an AST category on SourceForge that people should use to flag things as for the AST. They should also, by default, assign such items to me ("bcannon" on SF). We have also taken to flagging threads on the AST with "[AST]" as the first item in the subject line. There was also a slight discussion/clarification on the functions named marshal_write_*() that output a byte format for the AST that is supposed to be agnostic of implementation. This will most likely end up being used as the way to pass AST objects back and forth between C and Python code. But with the name collision of the word "marshal" with the actual 'marshal' module, it needs to be changed. I have suggested - byte_encode - linear_form - zephyr_encoding - flat_form - flat_prefix - prefix_form while Nick Coghlan suggsted - linear_ast - bytestream_ast Obviously I prefer "form" and Nick prefers "ast". With Nick's reply being independent of mine it will most likely have "linear" or "byte" in the name. With the patches for descriptors and generator expressions sitting on SF, syntactic support for all of Python 2.4 should get applied shortly. After that it will come down to bug hunting and such. There is a todo list in the design doc for those interested in helping out. .. _AST branch: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/python/python/dist/src/Python/?only_w… .. _compile.txt: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/python/python/dist/src/Python/Attic/c… Contributing threads: - `Procedure for AST Branch patches <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052308.html>`__ - `[AST] A somewhat less trivial patch than the last one. . . <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052336.html>`__ - `[AST] question about marshal_write_*() fxns <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052340.html>`__ ------------------------------------------------------- Putting docstrings before function declarations is ugly ------------------------------------------------------- The idea of moving docstrings before a 'def' was proposed, making it like most other practices in other languages. But very quickly people spoke up against the suggestion. A main argument was people just like the current way much better. I personally like the style so much that even in my C code I put the comment for all functions after the first curly brace, indented to match the flow of code. There was also an issue of ambiguity. How do you tell where the docstring for a module is when there is a function definition with a comment right after?:: """Module doc""" """Fxn doc""" def foo(): pass There is an ambiguity there thanks to constant string concatenation. In the end no one seemed to like the idea. Contributing threads: - `docstring before function declaration <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052406.html>`__ ------------------------------------------- PyPI improvements thanks to PyCon sprinting ------------------------------------------- Thanks to the hard work of Richard Jones, "Fred Drake, Sean Reifschneider, Martin v. Löwis, Mick Twomey, John Camara, Andy Harrington, Andrew Kuchling, David Goodger and Ian Bicking (with Barry Warsaw in a supporting role)" accordinng to Richard, there are a bunch of new features to PyPI_ (pronounced "pippy" to prevent name clashes with PyPy). These improvements include using reST_ for descriptions, a new 'upload' feature for Distutils (requires Python 2.5), ability to sign releases using OpenPGP (requires Python 2.5), metadata fields are now expected to be UTF-8 encoded, interface cleanup, and saner URLs for projects (e.g., http://www.python.org/pypi/roundup/0.8.2). .. _PyPI: http://www.python.org/pypi/ Contributing threads: - `New PyPI broken package editing <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052360.html>`__ - `Re: python/dist/src/Lib/distutils/command upload.py, 1.3, 1.4 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052362.html>`__ ------------------------------- Decorators for class statements ------------------------------- The desire to have decorators applied to class statements was brought up once again. Guido quickly responded, though, stating that unless a compelling use case that showed them much more useful than metaclasses it just would not happen. Contributing threads: - `@decoration of classes <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-March/052369.html>`__ =============== Skipped Threads =============== + itertools.walk() + Problems with definition of _POSIX_C_SOURCE + thread semantics for file objects Assume nothing is thread-safe + Draft PEP to make file objects support non-blocking mode. + Faster Set.discard() method? + __metaclass__ problem + Example workaround classes for using Unicode with csv module... + Change 'env var BROWSER override' semantics in webbrowser.py + bdist_deb checkin comments + Python 2.4 | 7.3 The for statement + Patch review: all webbrowser.py related patches up to 2005-03-20 + webbrowser.py: browser >/dev/null 2>&1 + C API for the bool type? + Shorthand for lambda + FYI: news items about Burton Report on P-languages + using SCons to build Python + 64-bit sequence and buffer protocol + Pickling instances of nested classes + python.org/sf URLs aren't working? ======== Epilogue ======== ------------ Introduction ------------ This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from March 16, 2005 through March 31, 2005. It is intended to inform the wider Python community of on-going developments on the list on a semi-monthly basis. An archive_ of previous summaries is available online. An `RSS feed`_ of the titles of the summaries is available. You can also watch comp.lang.python or comp.lang.python.announce for new summaries (or through their email gateways of python-list or python-announce, respectively, as found at http://mail.python.org). This is the sixty-first summary written by Brett Cannon (it's been fun). To contact me, please send email to brett at python.org. Do *not* post to comp.lang.python if you wish to reach me. The `Python Software Foundation`_ is the non-profit organization that holds the intellectual property for Python. It also tries to advance the development and use of Python. If you find the python-dev Summary helpful please consider making a donation. You can make a donation at http://python.org/psf/donations.html . Every penny helps so even a small donation with a credit card, check, or by PayPal helps. -------------------- Commenting on Topics -------------------- 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`_! ------------------------- How to Read the Summaries ------------------------- 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 for 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. Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_. Any unfamiliar punctuation is probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably regular expression syntax or a typo =); you can safely ignore it. I do suggest learning reST, though; it's simple and is accepted for `PEP markup`_ and can be turned into many different formats like HTML and LaTeX. Unfortunately, even though reST is standardized, the wonders of programs that like to reformat text do not allow me to 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`_. .. _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 .. _c.l.py: .. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=comp.lang.python .. _PEP Markup: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0012.html .. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/ .. _reST: .. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html .. _PSF: .. _Python Software Foundation: http://python.org/psf/ .. _last summary: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-03-01_2005-03-15.html .. _original text file: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-03-16_2005-03-31.ht .. _archive: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .. _RSS feed: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/channews.rdf

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gthumpy: GUI to handle images
by Thomas Guettler 02 Apr '05

02 Apr '05

GTK-GUI for images from a digital camera. You can enter metadata (date, title, description), switch between directories and display all images of a directory. You can created a slide show of static HTML files, too. The created files don't need a http server or CGI, you can burn a CD/DVD and give this to your friends (which might use windows). You only need a webbrowser to view the created HTML files. Changes since last release: - gtk2 - fullscreen support - keyboard shortcuts - change directory - change description of directory - list all images of a directory http://guettli.sourceforge.net/gthumpy/src/README.html http://guettli.sourceforge.net/gthumpy/download/gthumpy-2005-04-02.tgz Licence: Any Open Source Licence Thomas Güttler -- Thomas Guettler <guettli(a)thomas-guettler.de> http://www.thomas-guettler.de

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ReleaseForge 0.6.1 - A SourceForge project release tool
by stuff＠mailzilla.net 02 Apr '05

02 Apr '05

ReleaseForge 0.6.1 is now available for download. This is a minor bug fix release. http://releaseforge.sourceforge.net About ReleaseForge: ReleaseForge is a GUI application designed for project administrators and release engineers of projects that are hosted at SourceForge. It is intended to make it easier and faster to create a new release and edit existing releases rather than using the SourceForge Web interface. ReleaseForge streamlines the release effort by prompting you for information regarding your new release (version info, change log, release notes, files to include, etc). It then seamlessly negotiates with the SourceForge Web server, creating your release, posting your release notes/change log, uploading your files to the SourceForge FTP server, selecting the files for inclusion in your release on the SourceForge Web server, updating the file attributes of each of the files and then, if appropriate, notifying monitoring users of the new release. Phil

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ZODB 3.4 alpha 1 released
by Tim Peters 02 Apr '05

02 Apr '05

I'm pleased to announce the release of ZODB 3.4 alpha 1. You can download a source tarball or Windows installer from: http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.4 ZODB 3.4a1 contains all the bugfixes in the ZODB 3.3.1c1 released earlier today, plus new features, such as a new BTree type mapping integers to floats, an end to the limit on the number of open Connections per DB object, and new tool fsoids.py for heavy FileStorage debugging. See the news file for details: http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.4/NEWS.html Note that ZODB 3.4 does not support any version of Zope 2.6 or 2.7. Zope 2.8a2 (to be released soon), and current Zope 3 development, use ZODB 3.4. The ZODB 3.3 line will be retired with the release of ZODB 3.3.1 final.

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ZODB 3.3.1 release candidate 1 released
by Tim Peters 02 Apr '05

02 Apr '05

I'm pleased to announce the release of ZODB 3.3.1c1. In the absence of new critical bug reports, the same code will be released as ZODB 3.3.1 final in a week or two. You can download a source tarball or Windows installer from: http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.3 There are several critical bugfixes and improvements in ZODB 3.3.1c1. See the news file for details: http://zope.org/Products/ZODB3.3/NEWS.html Note that ZODB 3.3.1 does not support any version of Zope 2.6 or 2.7. Zope 2.8, and current Zope 3, development have moved to ZODB 3.4, so ZODB 3.3.1 final is expected to be the last release in the ZODB 3.3 line.

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Three weeks to go to Python-UK - 21-23 April, Oxford
by andy＠reportlab.com 01 Apr '05

01 Apr '05

There are just three weeks to go to Python-UK! The UK Python conference is once again taking place at the Randolph Hotel in the centre of historic Oxford, as part of the ACCU conference, on 21-23 April. http://www.accu.org/conference/python.html On Tuesday 19th there's also a full day tutorial for intermediate and advanced Python programmers, given by Michele Simionato, at a fraction of the price of most professional training courses. There are just a few places remaining, so book quickly! http://www.accu.org/conference/python_tutorial.html Anyone attending the event is free to move between tracks and learn from a world-class program on patterns, agile development, Java, C++ and C# as well as Python. Best Regards, Andy Robinson Python-UK Conference chair

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