Mailman 3 August 2006 - Python-announce-list

[ANN] The argparse module
by Steven Bethard 03 Aug '06

03 Aug '06

I'm pleased to announce initial availability of the argparse module, an optparse-inspired command line parser: http://argparse.python-hosting.com/ The argparse module can be downloaded as a single file, argparse.py, through the Browse Source link on the website. Argparse improves on optparse by: * handling both optional and positional arguments * supporting parsers that dispatch to sub-parsers * producing more informative usage messages * supporting arguments that consume any number of string args * allowing types and actions to be specified with simple callables instead of hacking class attributes like STORE_ACTIONS or CHECK_METHODS as well a number of other improvements on the optparse API. Just to whet your appetite: >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG') >>> _ = parser.add_argument('--foo', type=int, choices=[1, 2, 3], ... help='optional with integer choices') >>> _ = parser.add_argument('--bar', nargs='?', const='C', default='D', ... help='optional with or without arg') >>> _ = parser.add_argument('baz', nargs='+', type=float, ... help='positional with one or more args') >>> parser.parse_args('--bar --foo 2 0.5 1.5'.split()) Namespace(bar='C', baz=[0.5, 1.5], foo=2) This is the first public presentation of this module, so the APIs are still subject to change. If you find it of interest, and you'd like to help improve it, I'd be glad to open the project up to more developers. Bug reports can be made through Trac at: http://argparse.python-hosting.com/newticket Steven Bethard

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ANN: Python Enthought Edition 1.0.0 Released
by Bryce Hendrix 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

Enthought is pleased to announce the release of Python Enthought Edition Version 1.0.0 (http://code.enthought.com/enthon/) -- a python distribution for Windows. About Python Enthought Edition: ------------------------------- Python 2.4.3, Enthought Edition is a kitchen-sink-included Python distribution for Windows including the following packages out of the box: Numpy SciPy IPython Enthought Tool Suite wxPython PIL mingw MayaVi Scientific Python VTK and many more... More information is available about all Open Source code written and released by Enthought, Inc. at http://code.enthought.com 1.0.0 Release Notes ------------------------- A lot of work has gone into testing this release, and it is our most stable release to date, but there are a couple of caveats: * The generated documentation index entries are missing. The full text search does work and the table of contents is complete, so this feature will be pushed to version 1.1.0. * IPython may cause problems when starting the first time if a previous version of IPython was ran. If you see "WARNING: could not import user config", either follow the directions which follow the warning. * Some users are reporting that older matplotlibrc files are not compatible with the version of matplotlib installed with this release. Please refer to the matplotlib mailing list (http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=80706) for further help. We are grateful to everyone who has helped test this release. If you'd like to contribute or report a bug, you can do so at https://svn.enthought.com/enthought.

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itools 0.14.1 released
by "J. David Ibáñez" 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

itools is a Python library, it groups a number of packages into a single meta-package for easier development and deployment: itools.catalog itools.http itools.uri itools.cms itools.i18n itools.vfs itools.csv itools.ical itools.web itools.datatypes itools.rss itools.workflow itools.gettext itools.schemas itools.xhtml itools.handlers itools.stl itools.xliff itools.html itools.tmx itools.xml In spite of being a minor release, there are some important and visible (and backwards compatible) changes. First and foremost, the functional scope of itools.cms has been extended with calendar objects. It is possible to create a new empty calendar or upload ics files. Very important too is that now the web server is gracefully stopped. This means the pending requests will be processed before shutting down the server. Also, the French translation has been updated. And of course there are a bunch of bug fixes, accross the uri, handlers, csv, web and cms packages. This includes the task tracker items: #98, #416, #455, #456 and #457. Credits: - Hervé Cauwelier updated the French translation and fixed many bugs; - Nicolas Deram implemented the calendar objects in itools.cms; - J. David Ibáñez implemented the graceful stop and fixed many bugs. Resources --------- Download http://download.ikaaro.org/itools/itools-0.14.1.tar.gz Home http://www.ikaaro.org/itools Mailing list http://mail.ikaaro.org/mailman/listinfo/itools Bug Tracker http://bugs.ikaaro.org/ -- J. David Ibáñez Itaapy <http://www.itaapy.com> Tel +33 (0)1 42 23 67 45 9 rue Darwin, 75018 Paris Fax +33 (0)1 53 28 27 88

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Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Aug 2)
by Cameron Laird 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

QOTW: "[U]sing Python is not programming, it IS a fun!" - Tolga "The reason for making complex a builtin is _not_ to ease a single program, but to create a convention allowing different modules which operate on complex numbers to communicate." -Scott David Daniels Komodo 4.0 debuted at last week's OSCON: http://www.activestate.com/komodo/beta Python2.5final is under two weeks away. Watch for it. 'Want to *really* learn Python? http://home.earthlink.net/~python-training/public.html Quest for the Holy Grail is as Pythonic as it gets: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/grailquest/index.html John Henry asks a sober question which Simon Brunning can't refrain from soiling with his perverse algorithmic imagination: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/bb47da1c1c346954 C has static locals. Python has classes, closures, and defaulted keyword parameters: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/t hread/9799c58168e0615b/ Python range()s the way Dijkstra preaches: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD831.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 Python411 indexes "podcasts ... to help people learn Python ..." Updates appear more-than-weekly: http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.html Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer continue the marvelous tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson and Brett Cannon 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/ 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 Although unmaintained since 2002, the Cetus collection of Python hyperlinks retains a few gems. 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://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0042/ 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/topic/python/ (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… There is *not* an RSS for "Python-URL!"--at least not yet. Arguments for and against are occasionally entertained. 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!". Write to the same address to unsubscribe. -- 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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[ANN] LibYAML-0.0.1: The initial release
by Kirill Simonov 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

I'd like to announce the initial release of LibYAML, a YAML parser and emitter library written in C. LibYAML homepage: http://pyyaml.org/wiki/LibYAML TAR.GZ package: http://pyyaml.org/download/libyaml/yaml-0.0.1.tar.gz SVN repository: http://svn.pyyaml.org/libyaml Bug tracker: http://pyyaml.org/newticket?component=libyaml The library is functionally complete, but the documentation is scarce and the API is subject to change. For more information, you may check the project homepage, the doxygen-generated documentation in the `doc` directory of the source distribution, and the examples `tests/example-reformatter.c` and `tests/example-deconstructor.c`. There are preliminary Python bindings for LibYAML in the PyYAML SVN repository. LibYAML is written by Kirill Simonov <xi(a)resolvent.net>. It is released under the MIT license. See the file LICENSE for more details. This project is developed for Python Software Foundation as a part of the Google Summer of Code program under the mentorship of Clark C. Evans.

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Release: DirectPython 0.5
by Heikki Salo 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

A new version of DirectPython is now available at http://directpython.sourceforge.net/ What is it? ----------- DirectPython is a C++ extension to the Python programming language which provides basic access to DirectX (9.0c) API, including Direct3D, DirectSound, DirectShow and DirectInput. The full distribution is very easy to install and it includes many samples and documentation that show the basics of DirectPython programming. No additional packages are needed. Whats new in 0.5.0? ------------------ -Bug fixes -Basic GUI library -New samples -Add advanced features with ctypes/comtypes And much more. Check the release notes for further information. Requirements ------------- A Windows operating system with Python 2.4.x and DirectX 9.0c installed.

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ANN: Quest for the Holy Grail (a PyGame game)
by Greg Ewing 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

This game is doubly Pythonic -- it uses PyGame, and it's based on a Monty Python movie. It was originally an entry in the Pygame.draw challenge (http://media.pyweek.org/static/pygame.draw-0606.html). I've put a slightly enhanced and bugfixed version on my web page: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/grailquest/index.html It requires Python 2.3 or later and PyGame with SDL_image and SDL_ttf support. That's all! Comments, suggestions and amusing gameplay anecdotes are welcome. Have fun, -- Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg

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