Mailman 3 April 2008 - Python-announce-list

[ANN] EuroSciPy Abstracts Deadline Reminder
by Travis Vaught April 30, 2008

April 30, 2008

Greetings, Just a reminder: the abstracts for the EuroSciPy Conference in Leipzig are due by midnight tonight (CST, US [UTC -6]) April, 30. If you'd like to present, please submit your abstract as a PDF, MS Word or plain text file to euroabstracts(a)scipy.org. For more information on the EuroSciPy Conference, please see: http://www.scipy.org/EuroSciPy2008

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Meeting Python User Group Berlin 07.05.
by Stephan Diehl April 30, 2008

April 30, 2008

Hallo, The next berlin python user group meeting is Wednesday, 7th of may, 7pm Place: new thinking store, Tucholskystr. 48, 10117 Berlin Further information can be found at http://wiki.python.de/User_Group_Berlin See you there Stephan

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[ANN] Gheat 0.2: Heatmaps for Google Maps, now with Pygame
by Chad Whitacre April 30, 2008

April 30, 2008

Greetings, program! I have released a new version of Gheat, heatmaps for Google Maps. Announcement with promo screencast here: http://blag.whit537.org/2008/04/gheat-02-pygame-pretty-colors.html Project homepage here: http://code.google.com/p/gheat/ chad

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CodeInvestigator 0.10.0 released.
by Martien Friedeman April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

CodeInvestigator version 0.10.0 was released on April 28. This release fixes 2 bugs: Exceptions were not handled correctly. Recursive programs were not handled correctly. Thank you Sze Meng for reporting these! A usability change was made: Until now you could only go to a specific iteration by clicking the '>>' tab. This becomes a nuisance when there are many iterations. Now, when there are many iterations to choose from, you can click a selection tab that allows you to jump. CodeInvestigator is a tracing tool for Python programs. Running a program through CodeInvestigator creates a recording. Program flow, function calls, variable values and conditions are all stored for every line the program executes. The recording is then viewed with an interface consisting of the code. The code can be clicked: A clicked variable displays its value, a clicked loop displays its iterations. You read code, and have at your disposal all the run time details of that code. A computerized desk check tool and another way to learn about your program. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=183942

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Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Apr 28)
by Gabriel Genellina April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

QOTW: "Posting to comp.lang.python is pair programming with the entire internet ;-)" - Nick Craig-Wood http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/6f13cfca8a92c1a2 "When it got to the point where managers were asking, 'Why didn't you use the config check tool?', it was a done deal." - Roy Smith, on Python adoption http://mail.python.org/pipermail/advocacy/2008-April/000575.html Ideas to design a Python client/server application involving many aynchronous queries and real-time display of data: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/5e4618… Explicit variable declaration for functions: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/6c4a50… An example showing the difference between inheritance and composition: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/446128… Lists: item and slice assignment are confusing for a novice Python programmer: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/d00b0c… Converting xhtml to html isn't as trivial as one might expect: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/4bbbce… Using the subprocess module with non-blocking pipes: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/a6dd7b… Calling Python from PHP http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/ffb9d4… People worried about code breakage in Python 3.0 (continued from last week) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f07fef… Python Advocacy: success stories http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/1bd91a… ======================================================================== 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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VIFF 0.5
by Martin Geisler April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

On behalf of the VIFF Development Team, I am very happy to announce the release of VIFF 0.5: Tar/GZ: http://viff.dk/release/viff-0.5.tar.gz Tar/BZ2: http://viff.dk/release/viff-0.5.tar.bz2 Zip: http://viff.dk/release/viff-0.5.zip Exe: http://viff.dk/release/viff-0.5.win32.exe Changes since version 0.4: Added preliminary support for preprocessing and an efficient multiplication protocol which is secure against active adversaries. The Runtime class has been split into several parts and two new mixin classes provide different comparison protocols. Several coercion problems were fixed. The Runtime.callback method was renamed to Runtime.schedule_callback. VIFF was tested on Python 2.6 and some small problems were fixed. If python-gnutls is unavailable, players now automatically fallback to TCP connections. The installation guide was updated for Windows Vista. A new example program was added and the documentation was updated. Changed license to LGPL. About VIFF: Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework is a framework for creating efficient and secure multi-party computations (SMPC). Players, who do not trust each other, participate in a joint computation based on their private inputs. The computation is done using a cryptographic protocol which allows them to obtain a correct answer without revealing their inputs. Operations supported include addition, multiplication, and comparison, all with Shamir secret shared outputs. -- Martin Geisler VIFF (Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework) brings easy and efficient SMPC (Secure Multi-Party Computation) to Python. See: http://viff.dk/.

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Wing IDE 3.1beta3 released
by Wingware April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

Hi, Wingware has released version 3.1 beta3 of Wing IDE, an integrated development environment for the Python programming language. It is available from: http://wingware.com/wingide/beta This release includes the following changes: * How-To and improvements for using Wing IDE with Google App Engine * Scan for sys.path changes in main debug file (e.g. for Zope buildouts) * Preference to auto-strip trailing white space on save * Many vi mode improvements * Testing tool enhancements, including better support for test names that are not method names * Sped up stepping in the debugger * Set encoding for stdin/out/err in debug processes for better handling of non-ascii input and output * Fixed problems with debugging stackless tasklets * Python Shell allows spawned threads to run, rather than stopping all threads * Improved support for debugging code invoked by execfile() * Better autocompletion support for an x defined by 'import x.y.z' * More bug fixes, including also all those found in Wing 3.0.5 Please see the change log for a detailed list of changes: http://wingware.com/pub/wingide/prerelease/3.1.0-b3/CHANGELOG.txt Version 3.1 introduces a number of new features and includes bug fixes not found in the 3.0 series, as follows: * Files within .zip or .egg files can be displayed in the editor * Support for pkg_resources based namespace packages * Support for doctest and nose unit test frameworks (**) * Updated code analysis support for Python 2.5 constructs * Improved support for tasklets in Stackless Python * In-line argument entry of code templates/snippets (tab and back tab to traverse fields; arrow keys to change template indent, Esc to exit data entry mode) (**) * Include templates by name in autocompleter (**) * Simple word list driven auto-completion when working in non-Python files (*) * Open from Project for quick selection of files from the Project by typing a fragment (*) * Find Symbol for quick Goto-Definition for symbols in the current Python file by typing a fragment (*) * Show gi_running and gi_frame in Stack Data for generators * Sort menus and lists using more natural sorting so x2.py comes before x10.py * Preference to strip trailing white space on save * Scan for straightforward sys.path changes in main debug file * How-To and improvements for using Wing IDE with Google App Engine * Many bug fixes not in Wing 3.0.x (*)'d items are available in Wing IDE Personal or Professional only. (**)'d items are available in Wing IDE Professional only. *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. Wing IDE is available in three product levels: Wing IDE Professional is the full-featured Python IDE, Wing IDE Personal offers a reduced feature set at a low price, and Wing IDE 101 is a free scaled back version designed for teaching entry level programming courses with Python. 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. Wing 3.1 is a free upgrade for all Wing IDE 3.0 users. Any 2.x license sold after May 2nd 2006 is free to upgrade; others cost 1/2 the normal price to upgrade. 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 -- The Wingware Team Wingware | Python IDE Advancing Software Development www.wingware.com

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Wing IDE 3.0.5 released
by Wingware April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

Hi, We're happy to announce version 3.0.5 of Wing IDE, an integrated development environment for the Python programming language. It is available from: http://wingware.com/downloads Version 3.0.5 is a bug fix release that adds many vi mode improvements, improves stability, and fixes other usability bugs. See the change log at http://wingware.com/pub/wingide/3.0.5/CHANGELOG.txt for details. It is a free upgrade for all Wing 3.0 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 and 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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Sphinx 0.2 released
by Georg Brandl April 27, 2008

April 27, 2008

I'm pleased to announce the release 0.2 of Sphinx, the Python documentation generation tool. There were some intermediate smaller releases in the 0.1 series, but for 0.2 there are quite a lot new features and fixes. What is it? =========== Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation for Python projects (or other documents consisting of multiple reStructuredText source files). Its website is at <http://sphinx.pocoo.org/>. Partial list of changes ======================= (full list at http://sphinx.pocoo.org/changes.html) * Support a new extension method, ``add_crossref_type``. It works like ``add_description_unit`` but the directive will only create a target and no output. * Support a new extension method, ``add_transform``. It takes a standard docutils ``Transform`` subclass which is then applied by Sphinx' reader on parsing reST document trees. * Add support for other template engines than Jinja, by adding an abstraction called a "template bridge". * The config file itself can be an extension (if it provides a ``setup()`` function). * New directive, ``currentmodule``. It can be used to indicate the module name of the following documented things without creating index entries. * Allow giving a different title to documents in the toctree. * Allow giving multiple options and long options in a ``cmdoption`` directive. * Fix display of class members without explicit class name given. * There's a new config value, ``html_title``, that controls the overall "title" of the set of Sphinx docs. It is used instead everywhere instead of "Projectname vX.Y documentation" now. * All references to "documentation" in the templates have been removed, so that it is now easier to use Sphinx for non-documentation documents with the default templates. * You can now create an OpenSearch description file with the ``html_use_opensearch`` config value. * You can now quickly include a logo in the sidebar, using the ``html_logo`` config value. * You can include a logo in the title page with the ``latex_logo`` config value. * You can define the link colors and a border and background color for verbatim environments. Enjoy! Georg

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Chapter on real-time signal processing using numerical Python
by Johannes Nix April 27, 2008

April 27, 2008

Hi, this might be of interest for people who are look for practical information on doing real-time signal processing, possibly using multiple CPUs, and wonder whether it's possible to use Python for audio-type worst case latencies (around 25 ms). I've done that in my PhD work, both with real-time requirements on dual-CPU 64 bit platforms, and with very complex algorithms running on multicomputers. What I found is that numerical Python is a great environment for such tasks. I've used it as well for massively parallel algorithms (particle filters) for simulations of auditory scene analysis. What is a very special advantage is that if you get faster hardware, you can simply copy your algorithms to a new system and compile - even if it has a different CPU! I've documented the approach in my PhD thesis, in Appendix A, starting with some thoughts on developments in signal processing in the last years. This piece is available online. Title and abstract of that chapter read as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------- A real-time, script-based, multiprocessing Solution for experimental Development of Signal Processing Algorithms Evaluation of audio signal processing algorithms on real-time platforms has unique advantages. However, such environments also used to have the disadvantage of requiring expensive hardware, and tedious work to set them up, while providing only a short useful life. This report proposes to exploit advances in hardware and software development by integrating real-time processing with script-based explorative development and use of multiprocessing hardware. The concept was implemented based on standard hardware and open source software, and its realization and characteristics are presented here. Applications of the system for algorithm development and evaluation are described briefly. -------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the download link for several paper formats: http://medi.uni-oldenburg.de/members/jnix/index.html#thesisdownload Alternatively, for ISO A4 paper, use one of these two URLs: http://medi.uni-oldenburg.de/download/paper/Nix,Johannes-PhDthesis-2005-ISO… http://docserver.bis.uni-oldenburg.de/publikationen/dissertation/2006/nixlo… (for that paper size, this are the PDF pages 155 - 163) If you want to cite the chapter, e.g. when doing advocacy for scientific computing using SciPy, please do this as follows: Nix, Johannes (2005), "A real-time, script-based, multiprocessing Solution for experimental Development of Signal Processing Algorithms", in: Localization and Separation of Concurrent Talkers Based on Principles of Auditory Scene Analysis and Multi-Dimensional Statistical Methods, Appendix A, Ph.D. thesis, Universität Oldenburg, Germany. Also, I am currently looking for interesting further work opportunities or contracts in the domain of scientific computing and statistical estimation. If you know some interesting position, don't hesistate to contact me. Kind regards, Johannes -- Dr. Johannes Nix Energy & Meteo Systems GmbH Research & Development of windpower forecasts Bremen, Germany Phone: + 49 421 8963914

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