Mailman 3 November 2007 - Python-announce-list

October PSF Board meeting minutes available
by David Goodger 13 Dec '07

13 Dec '07

Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Python Software Foundation, October 8, 2007: http://www.python.org/psf/records/board/minutes/2007-10-08/ -- David Goodger <http://python.net/~goodger>

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ANN: wxPython 2.8.7.1
by Robin Dunn 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Announcing ---------- The 2.8.7.1 release of wxPython is now available for download at http://wxpython.org/download.php. This release has had some bugs fixed, some minor patches applied, and also incorporates the Google Summer of Code 2007 version of XRCed, and adds the Editra source code editor. Source code is available, as well as binaries for Python 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, for Windows and Mac, as well some packages for various Linux distributions. A summary of changes is listed below and also at http://wxpython.org/recentchanges.php. NOTE: On Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) the Python 2.5 binaries of wxPython expect to be used with the user-installed version of MacPython, not the Apple installed version. A fix for this issue is being worked on for the next release. In the meantime you can either install MacPython 2.5.1 and adjust your paths so that that Python is used, or you can stick with Apple's Python and the wxPython 2.8.4.0 that comes with Leopard. What is wxPython? ----------------- wxPython is a GUI toolkit for the Python programming language. It allows Python programmers to create programs with a robust, highly functional graphical user interface, simply and easily. It is implemented as a Python extension module that wraps the GUI components of the popular wxWidgets cross platform library, which is written in C++. wxPython is a cross-platform toolkit. This means that the same program will usually run on multiple platforms without modifications. Currently supported platforms are 32-bit Microsoft Windows, most Linux or other Unix-like systems using GTK2, and Mac OS X 10.3+, in most cases the native widgets are used on each platform to provide a 100% native look and feel for the application. Changes in 2.8.7.1 ------------------ Applied Patch [ 1783958 ] to use the native renderer for drawing the checkboxes in CheckListCtrlMixin. Incorporated the new version of XRCed. This is the result of a Google Summer of Code 2007 project by Roman Rolinsky, and includes a number of UI enhancements, as well as a mechanism for adding support for new components without needing changes to XRCed itself. These new components can be those supported at the C++ layer of XRC, as well as custom XRC handlers written in Python. See http://wiki.wxpython.org/XRCed_Refactoring_Project wxMac: Fixed wx.BusyInfo so it doesn't steal the activated status from the parent window. (This actually applies to all frames with the wx.FRAME_TOOL_WINDOW style and no decorations.) wxMac: Fixed the lack of painting the area between scrollbars on Leopard. wxMac: Fixed assertion errors dealing with toolbars on Leopard. wxMac: Multiline textcontrols now support attributes for margins and alignement; only a single tab distance can be set though. Added the wx.Image.AdjustChannels method. This function muliplies all 4 channels (red, green, blue, alpha) with a factor (around 1.0). Useful for gamma correction, colour correction and to add a certain amount of transparency to a image. Added Editra to the distribution, to give us a simple yet powerful programmer's code editor to replace the never finished PyAlaMode editor and related tools. Many thanks to Cody Precord for the work he has done on this tool and for allowing us to make it part of wxPython. Editra has syntax highlighting and other support for over 40 programming languages, excellent OS X integration, is extendable via plugins, and for those that are on the VI side of the fence there is a VI emulation mode. For more information see the Editra website at http://editra.org/ wxGTK: wx.Frame.ShowFullScreen now preserves the menubar's accelerators. wxGTK: wx.GetClientDisplayRect fixed. Applied patch [1838043], which adds a demo of the wx.RendererNative class functionality. Applied patch [1837449], which uses wx.RenderNative for drawing the combo button in the PopupControl. Added GetDirItemData to wx.GenericDirCtrl, which returns a reference to the data object associated with an item in the control. (Patch #1836326) -- Robin Dunn Software Craftsman http://wxPython.org Java give you jitters? Relax with wxPython!

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ViTables 1.2.2 released
by Vicent Mas (V+) 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Hi, We're happy to announce the release 1.2.2 of ViTables, the GUI for the PyTables and PyTables Pro packages. The current release focuses on fixing usability issues and bugs. It also gives support for larger datasets (up to 2**64 rows). You can see the change log for details: http://www.carabos.com/products/vitables_changelog If you are curious about how it looks like just watch the first introductory video: http://www.carabos.com/videos Once more, you are encouraged to buy ViTables, test it, use it, and spread the word. And now, the official announcement: ========================= Announcing ViTables 1.2.2 ========================= We are proud to present ViTables 1.2.2, the latest release of our viewer for PyTables/HDF5 files. As it happens with the entire PyTables family, the main strength of ViTables is its ability to manage really large datasets in a fast and comfortable manner. For example, with ViTables you can open a table with several thousand million rows almost instantaneously, and throw queries on it that run in typically less than a few tenths of second (if PyTables Pro is behind it) with very low memory requirements. The fact that it runs on top of PyTables ensures its speed and memory efficiency. Being a multiplatform application, ViTables runs flawlessly in Unix (and hence, GNU/Linux), Mac OS X and Windows. Finally, for a better user experience, we have created binary installers for Windows and Mac OS X. The Unix version is installable using Python distutils. In this release you will find some bug fixes and usability enhancements, among them: - capability for navigating datasets whith even 2**64 rows - enhanced displaying of datasets - Spanish translation added Platforms --------- At the moment, ViTables has been fully tested only on GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X platforms, but as it is made on top of Python, PyQt and PyTables, its portability should be really good and it should work just fine in other Unices. How to get it ------------- Go to: http://www.carabos.com/buy to find directions on how to buy it. You can get it under a personal license or a site one. Remember that, when you buy a license, you are contributing to the liberation process of PyTables Pro and ViTables. See: http://www.carabos.com/liberation for details. Share your experience --------------------- We are very interested in your feedback about ViTables. Please send your opinions, suggestions, bugs, etc. to vitables(a)carabos.com. Thank you! Enjoy Data with ViTables, the troll of the PyTables family! -- :: \ / Vicent Mas http://www.carabos.com 0;0 / \ Cárabos Coop. Enjoy Data V V " "

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alsaseq 0.2
by Patricio Paez 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Hi all, The second version of alsaseq, bindings to the ALSA sequencer has been released. Fixed some bugs in alsaseq.c, added id() function. Added funtions in alsamidi.py, and a class to read and write ALSA events into a CSV file. alsaseq is a Python module that allows to interact with ALSA sequencer clients. It can create an ALSA client, connect to other clients, send and receive ALSA events immediately or at a scheduled time using a sequencer queue. It provides a subset of the ALSA sequencer capabilities in a simplified model. It is implemented in C language and licensed under the Gnu GPL license version 2 or later. Home http://pp.com.mx/python/alsaseq Download http://pp.com.mx/python/alsaseq/alsaseq-0.2.tar.gz Regards, Patricio Páez pp at pp.com.mx

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Underscode 0.2.0 released
by Ivan Vilata i Balaguer 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

The second version of Underscode, the Python identifier-like encoding, has been released. The only change from 0.1.0 is that underscores are encoded as 0x5f and spaces as __, which makes most encoded strings a lot more readable. I know this breaks backwards compatibility, but at this stage of the project I think that not many people (if any) are affected by the change. So toy'n'enjoy! ============== Underscode ============== ------------------------------------- A Python identifier-like encoding ------------------------------------- :Author: `Ivan Vilata i Balaguer <ivan(a)selidor.net>`__ :URL: http://underscode.selidor.net/ About Underscode ================ Underscode_ is an encoding which is capable of representing *any* Unicode string as a valid (and quite similar) Python identifier. The way Unicode strings are encoded minimises the chances of clashing with other existing names, while not obscuring the resulting string too much. Some method decorators are provided which allow arbitrary objects to be accessed as normal instance attributes, with optional tab-completion support for interactive usage. The standard Python codec API is also supported. Underscode-encoded (or *underscoded*) strings can be quickly spotted because they end with an *odd* number of underscores, and they contain escape sequences beginning with an underscore where characters not allowed in identifiers would be found. Some examples of underscoded strings are: * ``_`` encodes the empty string. * ``foo_`` encodes ``foo``. * ``class_`` encodes ``class``. * ``foo__bar_`` encodes ``foo bar``. * ``foo_x5fbar_`` encodes ``foo_bar``. * ``_2006_09_18_``, like ``_20060918_``, encodes ``20060918``. * ``_x2fbin_x2fls_``, encodes ``/bin/ls``. * ``The__Knights__Who__Say___u201cNi_x21_u201d_`` encodes the properly quoted ``The Knights Who Say “Ni!”``. As you see, underscoded strings are quite similar to their decoded counterparts when these are more or less identifier-like, but complex strings can still be handled. Underscode is a very basic tool which may have several uses: * Avoiding clashes between method names and table field names in ORMs. * Enabling interactive attribute-like completion for children in hierarchically arranged structures (DOM trees, filesystems...), with full Unicode support. * As an aid in the generation of RPC stubs for identifiers which are not allowed by Python. * Computing unique IDs for sections in automatically generated XML or HTML documents. * Naming page handlers for web server frameworks like CherryPy. * ... just use your imagination! The Underscode package is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 3 or later (see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/). Underscoded strings as attributes --------------------------------- Underscode provides a module with decorators that allow you to use plain attribute access as a flexible way of accessing all kinds of "child objects" without polluting the normal attribute namespace, and with optional interactive completion if you wish so. For instance, you can make the (string) keys of a dictionary accessible as attributes:: from underscode.decorators import proxy_method class AttributedDict(dict): @proxy_method(dict.__getitem__) def __getattr__(self, name): return super(AttributedDict, self).__getattr__(name) @proxy_method(dict.__setitem__) def __setattr__(self, name, value): super(AttributedDict, self).__setattr__(name, value) @proxy_method(dict.__delitem__) def __delattr__(self, name): super(AttributedDict, self).__delattr__(name) Then, access to an attribute which looks like an underscoded string gets the name decoded and used as an argument to ``__getitem__()``: >>> d = AttributedDict() >>> d {} >>> d.foo = 1 >>> d.foo_ = 42 >>> d.foo_, d['foo'], d.foo (42, 42, 1) >>> d {u'foo': 42} >>> del d.foo_ >>> d {} Adding tab-completion on underscoded attributes to this simple example is as easy as applying some ready-to-use decorators on the methods used as arguments to ``proxy_method``. See the documentation of the ``underscode.decorators`` module for more information and examples. Python codec API support ------------------------ Since the Underscode package is compliant with the standard Python codec API, you can use Underscode to encode and decode strings with the usual ``unicode.encode()`` and ``str.decode()`` calls at any time just by importing the ``underscode.codec`` subpackage (it is not automatically imported by the main ``underscode`` package): >>> import underscode.codec >>> print u'this is \u201ca test\u201d' this is “a test” >>> u'this is \u201ca test\u201d'.encode('underscode') 'this__is___u201ca__test_u201d_' >>> 'this__is___u201ca__test_u201d_'.decode('underscode') u'this is \u201ca test\u201d' Getting Underscode ================== You can download the source code distribution of Underscode from the Python Package Index at http://pypi.python.org/. It uses the standard ``setup.py`` method for installation, runs on any platform and has no additional dependencies but Python version 2.4 or greater. You may also be interested in following the development of Underscode; you can get a copy of its development `Bazaar-NG`_ branch with:: $ bzr get https://bzr.selidor.net/selidor/underscode/trunk underscode Helping Underscode ================== There is a discussion group for Underscode at Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/underscode It would be great to discuss your opinions and feelings on Underscode in the group, to know how you used it in your project, and to help solving yours and others problems there! If you come across a bug or you have some enhancement proposal, you may use the Trac_ instance available at http://underscode.selidor.net/ .. _Underscode: http://underscode.selidor.net/ .. _Bazaar-NG: http://bazaar-ng.org/ .. _Trac: http://trac.edgewall.org/ :: Ivan Vilata i Balaguer @ Welcome to the European Banana Republic! @ http://www.selidor.net/ @ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ @

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Ropemacs 0.2 Released
by Ali Gholami Rudi 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

You can get it from: http://sf.net/projects/rope/files Ropemacs is an emacs mode that uses rope_ library to provide features like refactorings and code-assists. You should install rope_ library and Pymacs before using ropemacs. .. _`rope`: http://rope.sf.net/ -- http://www.fastmail.fm - mmm... Fastmail...

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Google Highly Open Participation Contest
by Titus Brown 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Dear Python community, I'm happy to announce that the Python Software Foundation is part of a new Google Open Source program, the Highly Open Participation Contest. This contest is an effort by Google to engage pre-college students in open source programming: Google is offering prizes and awards for completing a variety of tasks for several organizations. You can read the official announcement of the PSF's involvement over on the Python Software Foundation blog, at http://pyfound.blogspot.com/ or read about the overall Google Highly Open Participation Contest on the GHOP page itself, http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8 Python's project page is: http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-psf/ There are several ways that the community can help; please check out the MentorPage, http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-psf/wiki/MentorPa… for more information. We could use more mentors, and there's room for ~40 more tasks -- why not write one up on your own project? Also be sure to thank the people who made this possible, http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-psf/wiki/Contribu… and, of course, Google! best, --titus

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Wing IDE 3.0.2 released
by Wingware 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Hi, We're happy to announce version 3.0.2 of Wing IDE, an advanced development environment for the Python programming language. It is available from: http://wingware.com/downloads This release focuses on fixing usability issues found in Wing 3.0.1, including missed Search in Project matches, failure to offer auto-completion for code in extension modules, and about 25 other bugs. See the change log for details: http://wingware.com/pub/wingide/3.0.2/CHANGELOG.txt It is a free upgrade for all Wing 3.x users. *About Wing IDE* Wing IDE is an integrated development environment for the Python programming language. It provides powerful debugging, editing, code intelligence, testing, and search capabilities that reduce development and debugging time, cut down on coding errors, and make it easier to understand and navigate Python code. New features added in Wing 3.0 include: * Multi-threaded debugger * Debug value tooltips in editor, debug probe, and interactive shell * Autocompletion and call tips in debug probe and interactive shell * Automatically updating project directories * Testing tool, currently supporting unittest derived tests (*) * OS Commands tool for executing and interacting with external commands (*) * Rewritten indentation analysis and conversion (*) * Introduction of Wing IDE 101, a free edition for beginning programmers * Available as a .deb package for Debian and Ubuntu * Support for Stackless Python * Support for 64 bit Python on Windows and Linux (*)'d items are available in Wing IDE Professional only. System requirements are Windows 2000 or later, OS X 10.3.9 or later for PPC or Intel (requires X11 Server), or a recent Linux system (either 32 or 64 bit). *Purchasing & Upgrading* Wing IDE Professional & Wing IDE Personal are commercial software and require a license to run. To upgrade a 2.x license or purchase a new 3.x license: Upgrade https://wingware.com/store/upgrade Purchase https://wingware.com/store/purchase Any 2.x license sold after May 2nd 2006 is free to upgrade; others cost 1/2 the normal price to upgrade. -- The Wingware Team Wingware | Python IDE Advancing Software Development www.wingware.com

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Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Nov 28)
by Gabriel Genellina 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

QOTW: ""Given that C++ has pointers and typecasts, it's really hard to have a serious conversation about type safety with a C++ programmer and keep a straight face. It's kind of like having a guy who juggles chainsaws wearing body armor arguing with a guy who juggles rubber chickens wearing a T-shirt about who's in more danger." - Roy Smith, c.l.py, 2004.05.23 "[R]esumable functions are a honking great idea." - Alan Kennedy Making all equal instances the same (so "a==b" implies "a is b"): http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/c82c7d… A good way of organizing packages and project layout: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/8a0648… Enumerating all the running processes (cross-platform): http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f9f0c6… Numerical tricks from number-crunching people: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f67b7c… How to obtain the "next" floating point number: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/0d992d… Python "variables" and what they mean: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/26e4fe… Catching a segfault in a third party library: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/d50596… Why files don't have an EOF attribute - and an alternative method to process files in chunks http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/4916ce… ======================================================================== 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: PyTables & PyTables Pro 2.0.2 are out!
by Ivan Vilata i Balaguer 27 Nov '07

27 Nov '07

Hi everyone, We at Carabos are happy to announce the simultaneous release of the new 2.0.2 versions of both PyTables and PyTables Pro. They are mainly bugfix releases, and users of previous versions are encouraged to upgrade. And now the official announce: ============================================ Announcing PyTables and PyTables Pro 2.0.2 ============================================ PyTables is a library for managing hierarchical datasets and designed to efficiently cope with extremely large amounts of data with support for full 64-bit file addressing. PyTables runs on top of the HDF5 library and NumPy package for achieving maximum throughput and convenient use. PyTables Pro adds OPSI, a powerful indexing engine for executing very fast queries in large tables. In this version, some bugs have been fixed, being the most important a problem when moving or renaming a group. Some small improvements have been added as well. Besides, a *critical* bug has been fixed in the Pro version (the problem arose when doing repeated queries using the same index). Because of this, an upgrade is strongly recommended. In case you want to know more in detail what has changed in this version, have a look at ``RELEASE_NOTES.txt``. Find the HTML version for this document at: http://www.pytables.org/moin/ReleaseNotes/Release_2.0.2 You can download a source package of the version 2.0.2 with generated PDF and HTML docs and binaries for Windows from http://www.pytables.org/download/stable/ For an on-line version of the manual, visit: http://www.pytables.org/docs/manual-2.0.2 Migration Notes for PyTables 1.x users ====================================== If you are a user of PyTables 1.x, probably it is worth for you to look at ``MIGRATING_TO_2.x.txt`` file where you will find directions on how to migrate your existing PyTables 1.x apps to the 2.x versions. You can find an HTML version of this document at http://www.pytables.org/moin/ReleaseNotes/Migrating_To_2.x Resources ========= Go to the PyTables web site for more details: http://www.pytables.org About the HDF5 library: http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ About NumPy: http://numpy.scipy.org/ To know more about the company behind the development of PyTables, see: http://www.carabos.com/ Acknowledgments =============== Thanks to many users who provided feature improvements, patches, bug reports, support and suggestions. See the ``THANKS`` file in the distribution package for a (incomplete) list of contributors. Many thanks also to SourceForge who have helped to make and distribute this package! And last, but not least thanks a lot to the HDF5 and NumPy (and numarray!) makers. Without them, PyTables simply would not exist. Share your experience ===================== Let us know of any bugs, suggestions, gripes, kudos, etc. you may have. ---- **Enjoy data!** -- The PyTables Team :: Ivan Vilata i Balaguer >qo< http://www.carabos.com/ Cárabos Coop. V. V V Enjoy Data ""

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