Mailman 3 June 2007 - Python-announce-list

ANN: Amara XML Toolkit 1.2.0.2
by Uche Ogbuji 23 Jun '07

23 Jun '07

http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/4suite/amara http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/Amara/ ftp://ftp.4suite.org/pub/Amara/ Changes since Amara 1.2.0.1: * Fix bindery bug with e.g. del html.head.title * Fix bindery bug with elements named "None" * Fix bindery bug when a string object gets into a binding * Minor documentation and packaging tweaks Amara XML Toolkit is a collection of Python tools for XML processing-- not just tools that happen to be written in Python, but tools built from the ground up to use Python's conventions and take advantage of the many advantages of the language. Amara builds on 4Suite [http://4Suite.org], but whereas 4Suite offers more on literal implementation of XML standards in Python, Amara focuses on Pythonic idiom. It provides tools you can trust to conform with XML standards without losing the familiar Python feel. The components of Amara are: * Bindery: data binding tool (a very Pythonic XML API) * Scimitar: implementation of the ISO Schematron schema language for XML; converts Schematron files to Python scripts * domtools: set of tools to augment Python DOMs * saxtools: set of tools to make SAX easier to use in Python * Flextyper: user-defined datatypes in Python for XML processing There's a lot in Amara, but here are highlights: Amara Bindery: XML as easy as py -------------------------------- Bindery reads an XML document and it returns a data structure of Python objects corresponding to the vocabulary used in the XML document, for maximum clarity. Bindery turns the document <monty> <python spam="eggs">What do you mean "bleh"</python> <python ministry="abuse">But I was looking for argument</python> </monty> Would become a set of objects so that you could write binding.monty.python.spam In order to get the value "eggs" (as a Python Unicode object) or binding.monty.python[1] In order to get the element object with the contents "But I was looking for argument". There are other such tools for Python, and what makes Bindery unique is that it's driven by a very declarative rules-based system for binding XML to the Python data. You can register rules that are triggered by XPattern expressions specialized binding behavior. It includes XPath support and is very efficient, using SAX to generate bindings. See the user documentation, manual.html, for more details. Scimitar: exceptional schema language for an exceptional programming language ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scimitar is an implementation of ISO Schematron that compiles a Schematron schema into a Python validator script. You typically use scimitar in two phases. Say you have a schematron schema schema1.stron and you want to validate multiple XML files against it, instance1.xml, instance2.xml, instance3.xml. First you run schema1.stron through the scimitar compiler script, scimitar.py: scimitar.py schema1.stron A file, schema1-stron.py, is generated in the current working directory. If you'd prefer a different location or file name, use the "-o" option. The generated file is a validator script in Python. It checks the schematron rules specified in schema1.stron. Run this validator on each XML file you wish to validate: python schema1.py instance1.xml The validation report is generated on standard output by default, or you can use the "-o" option to redirect it to a file. The validation report is an XML external parsed entity, a format much like a well-formed XML document, but with some restrictions relaxed. Amara DOM Tools: giving DOM a more Pythonic face ------------------------------------------------ Amara DOM Tools features pushdom, similar to xml.dom.pulldom, but easier to use, and a function to return an XPath location for any DOM node. Amara SAX Tools: SAX without the brain explosion ------------------------------------------------ Tenorsax (amara.saxtools.tenorsax) is a framework for "linerarizing" SAX logic so it flows a bit more naturally, needing much less state machine wizardry. License ------- Amara is open source, provided under the 4Suite variant of the Apache license. See the file COPYING for details. Installation ------------ Amara requires Python 2.4 or more recent and 4Suite-XML 1.0 or more recent. The easiest way to install it is: easy_install amara If this does not work you are probably not set up for easy_install and I suggest you follow the simple instructions at http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall easy_install will automatically take care of installing dependencies for you. If you prefer not to use easy_install, grab a 4Suite-XML package more recent than 1.0 and install that, then install the Amara package using the usual: python setup.py install Or a Windows installer, or other method. -- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji Articles: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/publications/

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ANN: Urwid 0.9.8.1 - Console UI Library
by Ian Ward 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

Announcing Urwid 0.9.8.1 ---------------------- Urwid home page: http://excess.org/urwid/ Tarball: http://excess.org/urwid/urwid-0.9.8.1.tar.gz RSS: http://excess.org/feeds/tag/urwid/ About this release: =================== This is a maintenance release that fixes a number of bugs that have been found in 0.9.8. New in this release: ==================== * Fixed a Filler render() bug * Fixed a raw_display start()/stop() bug * Fixed a number of problems triggered by very small terminal window sizes. About Urwid =========== Urwid is a console UI library for Python. It features fluid interface resizing, UTF-8 support, multiple text layouts, simple attribute markup, powerful scrolling list boxes and flexible interface design. Urwid is released under the GNU LGPL.

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bbfreeze 0.94.0
by Ralf Schmitt 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

Hi all, I've just uploaded bbfreeze 0.94.0 to python's cheeseshop. bbfreeze creates standalone executables from python scripts. It's similar in functionality to py2exe or cx_Freeze. New in this version is support for relative imports. It also contains some fixes for packaging PyXML and cElementTree. 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. Note that calls to setuptools' pkg_resources.require will be replaced with a dummy implementation. Calls to resource handling functions are *not* implemented, and freezing packages using these features of pkg_resources will not be possible without further work. 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. 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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Vilnius/Post EuroPython PyPy Sprint 12-14th of July
by Michael Hudson 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

The PyPy team is sprinting at EuroPython again and we invite you to participate in our 3 day long sprint at the conference hotel - Reval Hotel Lietuva. If you plan to attend the sprint we recommend you to listen to the PyPy technical talks (`EuroPython schedule`_) during the conference since it will give you a good overview of the status of development. On the morning of the first sprint day (12th) we will also have a tutorial session for those new to PyPy development. As 3 days is relatively short for a PyPy sprint we suggest to travel back home on the 15th if possible (but it is ok to attend less than 3 days too). ------------------------------ Goals and topics of the sprint ------------------------------ There are many possible and interesting sprint topics to work on - here we list some possible task areas: * completing the missing python 2.5 features and support * write or port more extension modules (e.g. zlib is missing) * identify slow areas of PyPy through benchmarking and work on improvements, possibly moving app-level parts of the Python interpreter to interp-level if useful. * there are some parts of PyPy in need of refactoring, we may spend some time on those, for example: - rctypes and the extension compiler need some rethinking - support for LLVM 2.0 for the llvm backend - ... * some JIT improvement work * port the stackless transform to ootypesystem * other interesting stuff that you would like to work on ...;-) ------------ Registration ------------ If you'd like to come, please subscribe to the `pypy-sprint mailing list`_ and drop a note about your interests and post any questions. More organisational information will be sent to that list. Please register by adding yourself on the following list (via svn): http://codespeak.net/svn/pypy/extradoc/sprintinfo/post-ep2007/people.txt or on the pypy-sprint mailing list if you do not yet have check-in rights: http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-sprint --------------------------------------- Preparation (if you feel it is needed): --------------------------------------- * read the `getting-started`_ pages on http://codespeak.net/pypy * for inspiration, overview and technical status you are welcome to read `the technical reports available and other relevant documentation`_ * please direct any technical and/or development oriented questions to pypy-dev at codespeak.net and any sprint organizing/logistical questions to pypy-sprint at codespeak.net * if you need information about the conference, potential hotels, directions etc we recommend to look at http://www.europython.org. We are looking forward to meet you at the Vilnius Post EuroPython PyPy sprint! The PyPy team .. See also .. .. _getting-started: http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc/getting-started.html .. _`pypy-sprint mailing list`: http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-sprint .. _`the technical reports available and other relevant documentation`: http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc/index.html .. _`EuroPython schedule`: http://europython.org/timetable

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E-book: _Intro to Web Testing_
by Titus Brown 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

Grig Gheorghiu, Jason Huggins and I have just finished a book, _An Introduction to Testing Web Applications with twill and Selenium_. It is available as an inexpensive e-book through O'Reilly: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/functionalwt/ While the entire book uses Python throughout, the last chapter of the book should be particularly interesting for Python programmers: it introduces testing of the simple Django "poll" application with both Selenium and twill. We would love some feedback. thanks, --titus

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Pydev 1.3.5 Released
by Fabio Zadrozny 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

Hi All, Pydev and Pydev Extensions 1.3.5 have been released Details on Pydev Extensions: http://www.fabioz.com/pydev Details on Pydev: http://pydev.sf.net Details on its development: http://pydev.blogspot.com Release Highlights in Pydev Extensions: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Auto-Import: o Import is now set in correct line even with multi-line imports. o Added option to disable the introduction of auto-imports. o Added option to remove modules that start with '_' from the imports (so, tokens would have to be found in __init__.py files). * Code Analysis: Having a list comprehension with a subscript was not being treated correctly. * Debugger: Working with jython. * Debugger: Working with wxPython. Release Highlights in Pydev: ---------------------------------------------- * Eclipse 3.3 Integration: Does not keep eclipse from a correct shutdown anymore. * Docstrings and code completion pop-up: o The docstrings are now wrapped to the size of the pop-up window. o The initial columns with whitespaces that are common for all the docstring is now removed. o The previous size of the pop-up window in completions is now restored. * Extract method refactoring: was not adding 'if' statement correctly on a specific case. * Organize imports: (Ctrl+Shift+O): comments are not erased in import lines when using it anymore. * Interpreter Config: solved a concurrency issue (which could issue an exception when configuring the interpreter). * Jython integration: can now work with a j9 vm. * Jython integration: those that don't use jython can now use eclipse without JDT (but it's still required for jython development). * Outline: o The comments are now set in the correct level (below module, class or method). o Comments are sorted by their position even when alphabetic sorting is in place. o Comments are added to the outline if they start or end with '---'. What is PyDev? --------------------------- PyDev is a plugin that enables users to use Eclipse for Python and Jython development -- making Eclipse a first class Python IDE -- It comes with many goodies such as code completion, syntax highlighting, syntax analysis, refactor, debug and many others. Cheers, -- Fabio Zadrozny ------------------------------------------------------ Software Developer ESSS - Engineering Simulation and Scientific Software http://www.esss.com.br Pydev Extensions http://www.fabioz.com/pydev Pydev - Python Development Enviroment for Eclipse http://pydev.sf.net http://pydev.blogspot.com

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DFW Pythoneers Meeting THIS Saturday
by Jeff Rush 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

This Saturday we'll be holding our 4th Saturday meeting of the DFW Pythoneers, at the usual location of Nerdbooks.com bookstore in Richardson. For directions, visit the Nerdbooks.com website. We start at 2pm and run until 5pm, and then go out for a group dinner. At this meeting one of our local members, Jeremy Dunck, will be giving us a preview of a 60-minute advanced Django tutorial he is helping to give at OSCON next month. The advanced material will cover the unicode branch, signals and either stateful views or gis branch. Since many of our members are not experienced with Django, Jeremy will present a 45-minute introduction to Django first, which will cover URLConf, views, models and perhaps middleware. --- By the way, I've been contacted by a developer at the Travelocity Dallas office, who is looking for local Python developers with experience in Django or Genshi. If you're interested, let me know and I can put you in touch. --- And just to give a heads-up for July, our own Patrick R. Michaud has agreed to give our group a presentation on the status of support for Python in the virtual machine, Parrot, underlying Perl 6 and many other languages. For more info, check out: http://www.parrotcode.org Patrick will present to us on the 2nd Saturday of July, the 14th. Patrick is the author of PGE, the parrot/Perl6 Grammar engine and is also the Perl 6 compiler pumpking. See you there! Jeff Rush DFW Pythoneers Organizer

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Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jun 19)
by Gabriel Genellina 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

QOTW: "Regarding a Java programmer moving to Python, a lot of the mindset change is about the abundant use of built in data types of Python. So a Java programmer, when confronted with a problem, should think 'how can I solve this using lists, dicts and tuples?' (and perhaps also my new favourite, sets). Class-based solution should be chosen only after seeing that the problem can't be trivially solved with built-in types." - Ville Vainio "The remainder of the unittest docs are somewhat obtuse and uninspiring." - Raymond Hettinger How to generate HTML page thumbnails: John J Lee enumerates several alternatives, using MSIE, Firefox, Konqueror and others. http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/2185ad… Concatenating strings may be painfully slow in some circumstances if not done the right way: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/3999b8… Initializing class members only when needed, using a LazyClassAttribute decorator: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/18f8b5… Postpone attribute creation: similar to thread above, but more from a design perspective: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/393d2a… Simple Programs: the search for small, complete, useful examples of Python code still continues: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/ec8184… See the resulting programs at http://wiki.python.org/moin/SimplePrograms A simple question: "How many list items comply with this condition?", and many answers: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/6d488f… Continuing from last week: "only one way to do it", now discussing tail call optimization, generic programming, Scheme and macros... http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e58747… ======================================================================== 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. The Python Papers aims to publish "the efforts of Python enthusiats". http://pythonpapers.org/ 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: ShowMeDo commercial series: 'Python 101 - easygui and csv'
by Ian Ozsvald 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Summary: 1 hour 20 minutes of lessons in how to build a complete and tested Python application from scratch. The series is aimed at beginners, all necessary material is provided, viewers can ask me (the author) questions as they go. Commercial series: 'Python 101 - easygui and csv': http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=IwrOgqPc9 Detail: The 17 episodes walk a new Python programmer through all necessary steps to build a working and unit-tested Python program. In this series I use Wingware's Wing IDE but any Python development environment can be used. The program reads in a csv data file (e.g. from Excel) using a file-open dialog (easygui), the data is processed, a mathematical average generated and a modified csv file is written out. easygui's messagebox and yes/no dialog are also used. I show how to document the code, refactor the early script using functions and test functions using nosetests. Several exercises are set which extend the viewer's knowledge of easygui. They also provide practice for writing code, refactoring and applying test-driven development. The viewer is encouraged to ask questions using the Comments section, I'll answer all questions and everyone is encouraged to help each other. Full source is provided and the viewer can download the videos for off-line viewing. Further details are available here: http://blog.showmedo.com/2007/06/13/learn-gui-and-file-handling-techniques/ -- http://ShowMeDo.com http://ShowMeDo.com/about (our pictures) http://blog.ShowMeDo.com http://forums.ShowMeDo.com Ian(a)ShowMeDo.com

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Announce: Python Bootcamp at Big Nerd Ranch Europe (July 2007)
by David Beazley 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

Just a quick announcement to let everyone know that there is still time to register for the upcoming Python Bootcamp course being offered by Big Nerd Ranch in Frankfurt, Germany, July 16-20, 2007. Further details about the class are available here: http://www.bignerdranch.com/classes/python.shtml As the instructor, I am very excited about this class and think that it has a lot to offer to programmers with or without prior Python experience. Probably the most exciting aspect of the course is that it has been developed from the ground up to target modern Python. As a result, it fully covers the latest language features and library modules. These topics include iterators, generators, metaclasses, the etree module, ctypes, and more. In addition to this, the course strongly focuses on topics such as such as common Python programming patterns, how to write reliable code, unit testing, debugging, systems, and network programming. More information is available at the above website. I can also be contacted directly for further inquiries regarding course content. Hope to see a few Python fans in Europe! Cheers, Dave Brief Instructor Bio: David Beazley is the author of the "Python Essential Reference, 3rd Ed." and several well-known Python packages including SWIG and PLY. More information is available at http:// www.dabeaz.com.

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