Mailman 3 October 2007 - Python-announce-list

Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Oct 22)
by Gabriel Genellina 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

QOTW: "[T]here's always no best." - Lawrence Oluyede http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/32bce47d185 ce42e "I actually do a lot of unit testing. I find it both annoying and highly necessary and useful." - Steven Bethard http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/4df60bdff72540cb Some confusion when using `if x:` as an existence test: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e75348… The difference between list+=a and list.extend(a) and how to use the timeit module the right way: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/2f932731e3b96c7f Detecting the last element in an iteration: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/34c739… Unicode support in MySQL: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e1a9b5… mod_python and its limited reload support: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/30cc3f… unicodedata.normalize is not enough for automatic transliteration: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e977d6… How to use expressions and reference other modules when configuring the logging package: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/21be57… How to tell if a script is being run by "python.exe" or "pythonw.exe" (Windows): http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/716df0… ======================================================================== 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. Just beginning with Python? This page is a great place to start: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers The Python Papers aims to publish "the efforts of Python enthusiats": http://pythonpapers.org/ The Python Magazine is a technical monthly devoted to Python: http://pythonmagazine.com Readers have recommended the "Planet" sites: http://planetpython.org http://planet.python.org 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 continues the marvelous tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson, Brett Cannon, Tony Meyer, and Tim Lesher 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 Many Python conferences around the world are in preparation. Watch this space for links to them. 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-- Phaseit, Inc. (http://phaseit.net) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project. Watch this space for upcoming news about posting archives.

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ANN: cssutils 0.9.4a1
by Christof Hoeke 20 Oct '07

20 Oct '07

what is it ---------- A Python package to parse and build CSS Cascading Style Sheets. main changes since 0.9.3 --------------------- for full details see the relevant README file http://cssutils.googlecode.com/svn/tags/TAG_0.9.4a1/README.txt main changes - **FEATURE**: Added a new module ``cssutils.codec`` that registers a codec that can be used for encoding and decoding CSS. (http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-CSS21-20060411/syndata.html#q23) - **FEATURE**: Added implementation of ``stylesheets.MediaQuery`` which are part of stylesheets.MediaList. See the complete spec at http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/ for details. + **API CHANGE**: ``CSSNamespacerule.uri`` is renamed to ``CSSNamespaceRule.namespaceURI`` which is defined is CSSOM. ``uri`` is deprecated and still available but the constructor parameter is named ``namespaceURI`` in any case now. + **API CHANGE**: As ``stylesheets.MediaQuery`` is implemented now all classes using an instance of ``stylesheets.MediaList`` are presented slightly different. Until now a simple list of string was given, now the list contains MediaQuery objects. + **API CHANGE**: ``_Property`` has been renamed to ``css.Property`` and is used in context of ``CSSStyleDeclaration`` and ``MediaQuery``. Attribute ``Property.value`` has been *de-deprecated* and may be used normally now (again). The Property constructor has only optional parameters now. + **API CHANGE**: Removed experimental class ``SameNamePropertyList`` which was used in ``CSSStyleDeclaration`` and also method ``CSSStyleDeclaration.getSameNamePropertyList``. A new method ``CSSStyleDeclaration.getProperties()`` has been added which is simpler and more useful + **API CHANGE**: renamed attribute ``namespaces`` of CSSStyleSheet and Selector to ``prefixes`` as they really are the prefixes of declared namespaces + BUGFIX: Tantek hack (using ``voice-family``) should work now as SameNamePropertyList is removed and properties are kept in order - **CHANGE**: A completely new tokenizer and mostly also the parser have been reimplemented in this release. Generally it should be much more robust and more compliant now. It will have new errors and also some slight details in parsing are changed. + **Documentation**: Added some docs in reStructuredText format including a basic server to view it as HTML. The HTML may be published as well. license ------- cssutils is published under the LGPL. download -------- for download options for cssutils 0.9.4a1 - 071020 see http://cthedot.de/cssutils/ cssutils needs * Python 2.4 or higher (tested with Python 2.5 on Vista only) bug reports, comments, etc are very much appreciated! thanks Christof

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[ANN] Release 0.65.3 of Task Coach
by Frank Niessink 20 Oct '07

20 Oct '07

Hi, I'm happy to announce release 0.65.3 of Task Coach. This bugfix release fixes one critical bug that affects users on the Windows platform and several minor bugs that affect users on all platforms. Bugs fixed: * Don't leak GDI objects on Windows. * Don't notify of new version when the user has just installed that version. * Mail disappears from Outlook when dropped in TaskCoach. Try to use Outlook to open mail attachment when it's the "default" mailer. * Mail task doesn't work. * Categories not sorted correctly. 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://www.taskcoach.org In addition to the source distribution, packaged distributions are available for Windows XP/Vista, Mac OSX, and Linux (Debian and RPM format). Note that Task Coach is alpha software, meaning that it is wise to back up your task file regularly, and especially when upgrading to a new release. Cheers, Frank

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version 1.4 of scalar class released
by uymqlp502＠sneakemail.com 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

Version 1.4 of my scalar class is available at http://RussP.us/scalar.htm No major changes. I have corrected the "repr" function to make it more useful, and I have added a "unit_type" function that returns the type of a unit (e.g., time, length, force). The unit_type function is intended mainly for interactive, "calculator-style" use. If you do scientific or engineering calculations or programming, please check out my scalar class. I think you'll like it. It will relieve you of the burden of keeping track of units ("darn, I can't remember if that angle is in radians or degrees?"). And the really nifty thing about it is that, when you want high execution speed for production runs, you can easily switch off the units with a simple change of the import line. All the unit objects will then be replaced with bulit-in types (typically floats), and your output will be unchanged, but you will notice a dramatic speedup. A complete user guide is available in both pdf and html formats. Give it a try and let me know what you think! --Russ P.

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ANN: Pyrex 0.9.6.3
by Greg Ewing 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

Pyrex 0.9.6.3 is now available: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg/python/Pyrex/ Main features of this release: * The C API now uses just one name in the module namespace, instead of a name per C function. * The 'cdef' keyword and following extern/public/api qualifiers can be factored out of a group of declarations and made into a block header, e.g. cdef public: int spam float ftang void tomato() * A 3-argument form of the builtin getattr function has been added, called getattr3(). What is Pyrex? -------------- Pyrex is a language for writing Python extension modules. It lets you freely mix operations on Python and C data, with all Python reference counting and error checking handled automatically.

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ANNOUNCE: pygtkmvc-1.2.1 has been released
by Roberto Cavada 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

Version 1.2.1 of pygtkmvc has been released. Project homepage: <http://pygtkmvc.sourceforge.net> Download: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/pygtkmvc/> ============== About pygtkmvc ============== pygtkmvc is a fully Python-based implementation of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) and Observer patterns for the PyGTK2 toolkit. MVC is a pattern that can be successfully used to design and develop well structured GUI applications. The MVC pattern basically helps in separating semantics and data of the application, from their representation. The Observer pattern helps to weaken dependencies among parts that should be separated, but need to be connected each other. pygtkmvc provides a powerful and still simple infrastructure to help designing and implement GUI applications based on the MVC and Observer patterns. The framework has been designed to be: * Essential and small, it does only what it was designed for. * Not an external dependency for your application: it fits in 80KB and can be released along with it. * Easy to understand and to use; fully documented. * Portable: straightly runs under many platforms. License: LGPL =================== About release 1.2.1 =================== This is a minor release that fixes a bug. Thanks to Roman Dobosz <gryf TA elysium TOD pl> for catching it. With respect to version 1.0.1, new version 1.2 provides: * New features: - Added adapters, new entities that largely simplify and reduce costs and development efforts. Adapters handles autonomous coordination between properties into models and widgets into views. Roughly speaking, an adapter keeps aligned some part of the model and a widget in a transparent and still customizable way. - Added script gtkmvc-progen that aids developers in generating gtkmvc-based projects from scratch. gtkmvc-progen can be run in both batch and GUI modalities. For example: $> gtkmvc-progen name=myproj author="Wil Shakespeare" gui=no ... generates project "myproj" in batch mode. See the user manual for a full list of available options. * Other changes - Spurious value changes in observable properties are no longer notified by default. A new optional parameter of class Observer allows for a backward-compatible semantics. - Widgets search into Views has been optimized. - Bug fixes and optimizations. o Undefined handlers for custom widgets are correctly managed. Thanks to Allan Douglas <zalguod TA users TOD sourceforge TOD net> for providing a working patch. o Fixed a subtle bug in the observer pattern implementation. o A few other minor fixes and optimizations. -- Roberto Cavada <roboogle TA gmail TOD com> <P><A HREF="http://pygtkmvc.sourceforge.net">pygtkmvc 1.2.1</A> - Pygtk MVC is a thin, multiplatform framework that helps to design and develop GUI applications based on the PyGTK toolkit. (17-Oct-07)

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Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Oct 17)
by Gabriel Genellina 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

QOTW: "Aaaugh! Don't use __slots__!" - Aahz "I will use public attributes (with access customizable with properties) and remember that in Python I can do everything :)." - Artur Siekielski Don't use __slots__ to create struct-like objects: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/4d0aa0… Carsten Haese aptly explains parameter binding in SQL statements: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e8a42b… Converting repr() of simple objects into the original objects again: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/58a012… Opinions about cross-platform GUI toolkits: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/59d2ea… A misplaced module can make a singleton not unique: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/58dbab… Good Python news from Argentina (read "assistants" as "attendees") http://mail.python.org/pipermail/advocacy/2007-October/000399.html and Ohio: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/advocacy/2007-October/000396.html Some people confused about class attributes, classmethods, and mutating operations: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/561173… continuations: what's that? what are they good for? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/671279… Properties, attributes, and "Python is not Java": http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/77923e… ======================================================================== 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. Just beginning with Python? This page is a great place to start: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers The Python Papers aims to publish "the efforts of Python enthusiats": http://pythonpapers.org/ The Python Magazine is a technical monthly devoted to Python: http://pythonmagazine.com Readers have recommended the "Planet" sites: http://planetpython.org http://planet.python.org 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 continues the marvelous tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson, Brett Cannon, Tony Meyer, and Tim Lesher 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 Many Python conferences around the world are in preparation. Watch this space for links to them. 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-- Phaseit, Inc. (http://phaseit.net) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project. Watch this space for upcoming news about posting archives.

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ordereddict 0.2
by Anthon van der Neut 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

I am pleased to announce the first public version the ordereddict module. From the blurb on ordereddict's home-page: This is an implementation of an ordered dictionary with Key Insertion Order: updates of values do not affect the position of the key. It implementation is directly derived from dictobject.c and its speed is 5-10% slower than dict() and 5-9 times faster than Larosa/Foord excellent pure Python implemention. This module has been tested under: Ubuntu 7.04, gcc : Python 2.5.1 Ubuntu 7.04, gcc : Python 2.4.4 Ubuntu 6.06, gcc : Python 2.5.1 Windows XP, Visual Studio 2003: Python 2.5.1 (see below) ordereddict's home on the web is at http://www.xs4all.nl/~anthon/Python/ordereddict there you also find the links where the source can be downloaded. The download includes relatively complete tests for all of ordereddict's functionality (all of dict() plus for now: .index(), .reverse(), .insert()) I hope this is useful and appreciate any feedback Anthon van der Neut -- Windows specific compilation problem: In order for things to link under Visual Studio 2003, I had to #ifdef out the call _PyObject_GC_TRACK. I am not sure why this caused a problem and had hoped that distutils would take care of these kind of linker issues. Until this is resolved, or confirmed as a non-issue please do not use this code in anything running for a longer period of time and relying on garbagecollection to operate correctly.

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bbfreeze 0.95.3
by Ralf Schmitt 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

Hi all, I've just uploaded bbfreeze 0.95.3 to python's cheeseshop. bbfreeze creates standalone executables from python scripts. It's similar in functionality to py2exe or cx_Freeze. This release fixes some issues with pythoncom on win32. It also now uses "automatic pathname rewriting" for code objects (see below). support for egg files: bbfreeze scans zipped egg files and now includes whole egg files/directories in the distribution. Programs using setuptools' pkg_resources module will now work. It offers the following features: easy installation bbfreeze can be installed with setuptools' easy_install command. zip/egg file import tracking bbfreeze tracks imports from zip files. multiple script freezing bbfreeze can freeze multiple scripts at once. python interpreter included bbfreeze will create an extra executable named 'py', which might be used like the python executable itself. *NEW* automatic pathname rewriting pathnames in tracebacks are replaced with relative pathnames (i.e. if you import package foo.bar from /home/jdoe/pylib/ tracebacks generated from functions in foo.bar will not show your local path /home/jdoe/pylib/foo/bar.py. They will instead show foo/bar.py) bbfreeze works on windows and UNIX-like operating systems. It currently does not work on OS X. bbfreeze has been tested with python 2.4 and 2.5. bbfreeze will not work with python versions prior to 2.3 as it uses the zipimport feature introduced with python 2.3. Links -------- cheese shop entry: http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/ bbfreeze/<http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/bbfreeze/> homepage: http://systemexit.de/bbfreeze/ mercurial repository: http://systemexit.de/repo/bbfreeze Regards, - Ralf

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ANN: Shed Skin 0.0.24, 0.0.25
by Mark Dufour 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

Hi all, I've just released Shed Skin 0.0.25. Together with the (unannounced) 0.0.24 release, there have been some interesting changes. Most importantly perhaps, Shed Skin now caches (most) 1-length strings, which can improve performance dramatically for string-intensive programs. I also performed a long-overdue rewrite of the virtual function detection code, which should work much more reliably now, at least for relatively simple cases :) 0.0.24: -1-length string caching 0.0.25 -improved detection of virtual functions -further set optimizations -fix for extension modules and certain default arguments -exhaustive checking of C++ keywords -fix for some combinations of arguments to min, max -several minor bug fixes As always, I could really use more help in pushing Shed Skin forward. Let me know if you'd like to help out, but are not sure where to begin. Thanks, Mark. -- "One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code" - Ken Thompson

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