Mailman 3 March 2011 - Python-announce-list

CaptureMock 0.1 - honestly not just yet another mocking framework!
by Geoff Bache March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011

Hi all, I can hear the groans already that here comes Python Mocking Framework Number 15 with new and improved syntax on the other 14, but plase hear me out for a paragraph or two! I've been following the Python mocking framework discussions with interest and wondered about joining in with my own contribution, but as this one is a bit different and is trying to solve a slightly different problem I've stayed out of it so far. The problem I'm (primarily) addressing is mocking out substantial subsystems and third-party modules when doing functional tests, and being easily able to handle the situation when the mocked subsystem changes its behaviour. I've found in the past that it's easy for mocks to diverge from what the real system does, and continue to pass even when the real code will break. Where other mocking frameworks primarily focus on mocking code that you own and write yourself, CaptureMock is more about mocking out code that you don't own. Anyway, I've created a mock framework that captures interaction with any given module, attribute or function, and stores the results in a text file. Any tests using it can then either be run in record or replay mode each time they are run. An obvious setup is therefore to ordinarily use replay mode but to re-record if anything in the interaction changes. And perhaps to have a CI setup somewhere that always uses record mode and hence verifies that the integration still works. Using it doesn't really involve writing mock code like existing mock tools do. It just requires saying what you want to capture: from capturemock import capturemock @capturemock("smtplib") def test_something_sending_email(): # etc @capturemock("datetime.datetime.now") def test_some_real_time_code(): # etc @capturemock("matplotlib") def test_my_graph_stuff(): # etc For more details (including what the recorded format looks like), see http://www.texttest.org/index.php?page=capturemock and obviously install from PyPI with "pip install capturemock" or similar. Any feedback much appreciated. I've been using it for some time, it's been hardwired into my TextTest tool until now, but it should be regarded as Alpha outside that context for obvious reasons... Regards, Geoff Bache

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TextTest 3.21 : blackbox testing with a Python slant
by Geoff Bache March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011

Hi all, There's a new version of the black-box test tool TextTest out. The "Traffic interception mechanism" has split off into a new project "CaptureMock", some migration is needed Otherwise, there are six months worth of generally minor enhancements and bug fixes across the board. Regards, Geoff Bache .... TextTest is a tool for automatic text-based functional testing. This means running a batch-mode executable in lots of different ways from the command line, and using the text output produced as a means of controlling the behavior of that application. As well as being usable "standalone", it is an extendable framework for black-box testing written in Python. It's also useful as a test management tool wrapping some other test tool as a test runner. Homepage: http://www.texttest.org Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/texttest Mailing list: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/texttest-users Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/texttest Source: https://code.launchpad.net/texttest

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[ANN] Shed Skin 0.7.1
by Mark Dufour March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011

hi all, I have just released Shed Skin 0.7.1, an optimizing (restricted!) Python-to-C++ compiler. It comes with some important extension module fixes, optimizations for several builtins (zip, min, max, map, filter, reduce, pow), a warning for non-uniform tuples of length > 2 and some minor fixes and internal cleanups. There are also two nice new examples (a quantum monte carlo simulator and an rsync implementation), bringing the count to 54 example programs, for a total of around 15,000 lines of code (as measured by sloccount). Please see my blog for the full announcement: http://shed-skin.blogspot.com Or go straight to the homepage: http://shedskin.googlecode.com Please have a look at the tutorial, try it out, and file any problems in the issue tracker. I'm also always very interested in hearing about potential new programs to add to the example set! Thanks, Mark Dufour -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6LsfnBmdnk

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Call for Papers: Conference on Domain-Specific Languages (DSL 2011)
by Emilie Balland March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011

============================ Call for Papers ============================ DSL 2011: Conference on Domain-Specific Languages (IFIP sponsorship pending approval) 6-8 September 2011, Bordeaux, France http://dsl2011.bordeaux.inria.fr/ CALL FOR PAPERS Domain-specific languages have long been a popular way to shorten the distance from ideas to products in software engineering. On one hand, the interface of a DSL lets domain experts express high-level concepts succinctly in familiar notation, such as grammars for text or scripts for animation, and often provides guarantees and tools that take advantage of the specifics of the domain to help write and maintain these particular programs. On the other hand, the implementation of a DSL can automate many tasks traditionally performed by a few experts to turn a specification into an executable, thus making this expertise available widely. Overall, a DSL thus mediates a collaboration between its users and implementers that results in software that is more usable, more portable, more reliable, and more understandable. These benefits of DSLs have been delivered in domains old and new, such as signal processing, data mining, and Web scripting. Widely known examples of DSLs include Matlab, Verilog, SQL, LINQ, HTML, OpenGL, Macromedia Director, Mathematica, Maple, AutoLisp/AutoCAD, XSLT, RPM, Make, lex/yacc, LaTeX, PostScript, and Excel. Despite these successes, the adoption of DSLs have been stunted by the lack of general tools and principles for developing, compiling, and verifying domain-specific programs. General support for building and using DSLs is thus urgently needed. Languages that straddle the line between the domain-specific and the general-purpose, such as Perl, Tcl/Tk, and JavaScript, suggest that such support be based on modern notions of language design and software engineering. The goal of this conference, following the last one in 2009, is to explore how present and future DSLs can fruitfully draw from and potentially enrich these notions. We seek research papers on the theory and practice of DSLs, including but not limited to the following topics. * Foundations, including semantics, formal methods, type theory, and complexity theory * Language design, including concrete syntax, semantics, and types * Software engineering, including domain analysis, software design, and round-trip engineering * Modularity and composability of DSLs * Software processes, including metrics for software and language evaluation * Implementation, including parsing, compiling, program generation, program analysis, transformation, optimization, and parallelization * Reverse engineering, re-engineering, design discovery, automated refactoring * Hardware/software codesign * Programming environments and tools, including visual languages, debuggers, testing, and verification * Teaching DSLs and the use of DSLs in teaching * Case studies in any domain, especially the general lessons they provide for DSL design and implementation The conference will include a visit to the city of Bordeaux, a tour and tasting at the wine museum and cellar, and a banquet at La Belle Époque. INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS Papers will be judged on the depth of their insight and the extent to which they translate specific experience into general lessons for software engineers and DSL designers and implementers. Where appropriate, papers should refer to actual languages, tools, and techniques, provide pointers to full definitions, proofs, and implementations, and include empirical results. Proceedings will be published in Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science (http://info.eptcs.org/). Submissions and final manuscripts should be at most 25 pages in EPTCS format. IMPORTANT DATES * 2011-04-18: Abstracts due * 2011-04-25: Submissions due * 2011-06-10: Authors notified of decisions * 2011-07-11: Final manuscripts due * 2011-09-05: Distilled tutorials * 2011-09-06/2011-09-08: Main conference PROGRAM COMMITTEE * Emilie Balland (INRIA) * Olaf Chitil (University of Kent) * Zoé Drey (IRIT) * Nate Foster (Cornell University) * Mayer Goldberg (Ben-Gurion University) * Shan Shan Huang (LogicBlox) * Sam Kamin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) * Jerzy Karczmarczuk (University of Caen) * Jan Midtgaard (Aarhus University) * Keiko Nakata (Tallinn University of Technology) * Klaus Ostermann (University of Marburg) * Jeremy Siek (University of Colorado at Boulder) * Tony Sloane (Macquarie University) * Josef Svenningsson (Chalmers University of Technology) * Paul Tarau (University of North Texas) * Dana N. Xu (INRIA) ORGANIZERS Local chair: Emilie Balland (INRIA) Program chairs: Olivier Danvy (Aarhus University), Chung-chieh Shan (Rutgers University) ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[ANNOUNCE] Passlib 1.3 - a password hashing library for python
by Eli Collins March 25, 2011

March 25, 2011

I'm pleased to announce the first public release of Passlib, a small password hashing library. Initially developed to handle password hashing for various multiuser applications, it has expanded to support a wide range of password hash algorithms, as well as tools aiding applications in migrating existing password hashes. Other features include: * Support for over 20 common password hashing algorithms, with complete format & algorithm documentation. * 95% complete unit test coverage * Pure python, os-independant * BSD licensed Passlib Homepage http://code.google.com/p/passlib/ Passlib Documentation http://packages.python.org/passlib Passlib @ PyPI http://pypi.python.org/pypi/passlib - Eli Collins

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ANN: SfePy 2011.1
by Robert Cimrman March 24, 2011

March 24, 2011

I am pleased to announce release 2011.1 of SfePy. Description ----------- SfePy (simple finite elements in Python) is a software for solving systems of coupled partial differential equations by the finite element method. The code is based on NumPy and SciPy packages. It is distributed under the new BSD license. Home page: http://sfepy.org Mailing lists, issue tracking: http://code.google.com/p/sfepy/ Git (source) repository: http://github.com/sfepy Documentation: http://docs.sfepy.org/doc Highlights of this release -------------------------- - discontinuous approximations - user-defined material nonlinearities - improved surface approximations - speed-up mesh reading - extensive clean-up - less code For more information on this release, see http://sfepy.googlecode.com/svn/web/releases/2011.1_RELEASE_NOTES.txt (full release notes, rather long and technical). Best regards, Robert Cimrman and Contributors (*) (*) Contributors to this release (alphabetical order): Vladimír Lukeš, Andre Smit, Logan Sorenson

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New blog from python-dev
by Doug Hellmann March 24, 2011

March 24, 2011

Python Insider (http://blog.python.org/) is a new blog from the Python core development team. It will provide a way for people who don't follow the mailing list to get an overview of topics discussed there, and especially to learn about changes in store for Python. We will be writing about Python-Dev activities such as the recently completed migration to Mercurial hosting, newly approved Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs), API changes, and other major efforts going on in Python core development. Think of this blog as your window into the evolution of Python. There are a variety of ways to subscribe, including email and Twitter. The details and links are in the welcome message for the blog (http://blog.python.org/2011/03/welcome-to-python-insider.html). Doug -- Doug Hellmann Communications Director Python Software Foundation http://python.org/psf/

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SciPy 2011 Call for Papers
by Amenity Applewhite March 23, 2011

March 23, 2011

Hello, SciPy 2011 <http://conference.scipy.org/scipy2011/index.php>, the 10th Python in Science conference, will be held July 11 - 16, 2011, in Austin, TX. At this conference, novel applications and breakthroughs made in the pursuit of science using Python are presented. Attended by leading figures from both academia and industry, it is an excellent opportunity to experience the cutting edge of scientific software development. The conference is preceded by two days of tutorials, during which community experts provide training on several scientific Python packages. *We'd like to invite you to consider presenting at SciPy 2011.* The list of topics that are appropriate for the conference includes (but is not limited to): * new Python libraries for science and engineering; * applications of Python to the solution of scientific or computational problems; * high performance, parallel and GPU computing with Python; * use of Python in science education. *Specialized Tracks* This year we also have two specialized tracks. They will be run concurrent to the main conference. *Python in Data Science Chair: Peter Wang, Streamitive, Inc.* This track focuses on the advantages and challenges of applying Python in the emerging field of "data science". This includes a breadth of technologies, from wrangling realtime data streams from the social web, to machine learning and semantic analysis, to workflow and repository management for large datasets. *Python and Core Technologies Chair: Anthony Scopatz, Enthought, Inc.* In an effort to broaden the scope of SciPy and to engage the larger community of software developers, we are pleased to introduce the _Python & Core Technologies_ track. Talks will cover subjects that are not directly related to science and engineering, yet nonetheless affect scientific computing. Proposals on the Python language, visualization toolkits, web frameworks, education, and other topics are appropriate for this session. *Talk/Paper Submission* We invite you to take part by submitting a talk abstract on the conference website at: http://conference.scipy.org/scipy2011/papers.php Papers are included in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings, to be published online. *Important dates for authors:* Friday, April 15: Tutorial proposals due (remember: stipends will be provided for Tutorial instructors) http://conference.scipy.org/scipy2011/tutorials.php Sunday, April 24: Paper abstracts due Sunday, May 8: Student sponsorship request due http://conference.scipy.org/scipy2011/student.php Tuesday, May 10: Accepted talks announced Monday, May 16: Student sponsorships announced Monday, May 23: Early Registration ends Sunday, June 20: Papers due Monday-Tuesday, July 11 - 12: Tutorials Wednesday-Thursday, July 13 - July 14: Conference Friday-Saturday, July 15 - July 16: Sprints The SciPy 2011 Team @SciPy2011 http://twitter.com/SciPy2011 _________________________ Amenity Applewhite Enthought, Inc. <http://www.enthought.com> Scientific Computing Solutions

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SQLObject 0.15.1
by Oleg Broytman March 22, 2011

March 22, 2011

Hello! I'm pleased to announce version 0.15.1, a bugfix release of branch 0.15 of SQLObject. What is SQLObject ================= SQLObject is an object-relational mapper. Your database tables are described as classes, and rows are instances of those classes. SQLObject is meant to be easy to use and quick to get started with. SQLObject supports a number of backends: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Firebird, Sybase, MSSQL and MaxDB (also known as SAPDB). Where is SQLObject ================== Site: http://sqlobject.org Development: http://sqlobject.org/devel/ Mailing list: https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/sqlobject-discuss Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.sqlobject Download: http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/SQLObject/0.15.1 News and changes: http://sqlobject.org/News.html What's New ========== * A bug was fixed in MSSQLConnection. * A minor bug was fixed in sqlbuilder.Union. For a more complete list, please see the news: http://sqlobject.org/News.html Oleg. -- Oleg Broytman http://phdru.name/ phd(a)phdru.name Programmers don't die, they just GOSUB without RETURN.

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ANN: mock 0.7.0 final release
by Fuzzyman March 21, 2011

March 21, 2011

Yay for conference driven development, I got the final release of mock 0.7.0 done in time for PyCon. No api changes since the release candidate. The only changes are documentation improvements (double yay!) * http://pypi.python.org/pypi/mock/ (download) * http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/ (documentation) * https://code.google.com/p/mock/ (repo and issue tracker) At PyCon I gave a talk on mock. It was an intro talk on how to use mock and why you should use it, but also covered some of the shiny new features in 0.7.0. The video of the talk is up (thanks to the PyCon video team): * PyCon Video: Testing with mock https://blip.tv/file/4881513 Here's the release announcement for mock 0.7.0 final. mock is a Python library for simple mocking and patching (replacing objects with mocks during test runs). The "headline features" in 0.7.0 are Python 3 support and the ability to mock magic methods. You can now mock objects that behave like containers or are used as context managers. mock is designed for use with unittest, based on the "action -> assertion" pattern rather than "record -> replay". People are happily using mock with Python test frameworks like nose and py.test. 0.7.0 is a major new release with a bunch of other new features and bugfixes as well. The big change since 0.7.0 rc 1 is documentation changes including a stylish new Sphinx theme. https://github.com/coordt/ADCtheme/ Three new pages particularly worth looking at are: * Mocking Magic Methods http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/magicmock.html * Further examples of mock http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/examples.html * Comparison with other mock frameworks http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/compare.html The full set of changes since 0.6.0 are: http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/changelog.html#version-0-7-0 * Python 3 compatibility * Ability to mock magic methods with `Mock` and addition of `MagicMock` with pre-created magic methods * Addition of `mocksignature` and `mocksignature` argument to `patch` and `patch.object` * Addition of `patch.dict` for changing dictionaries during a test * Ability to use `patch`, `patch.object` and `patch.dict` as class decorators * Renamed ``patch_object`` to `patch.object` (``patch_object`` is deprecated) * Addition of soft comparisons: `call_args`, `call_args_list` and `method_calls` now return tuple-like objects which compare equal even when empty args or kwargs are skipped * patchers (`patch`, `patch.object` and `patch.dict`) have start and stop methods * Addition of `assert_called_once_with` method * Mocks can now be named (`name` argument to constructor) and the name is used in the repr * repr of a mock with a spec includes the class name of the spec * `assert_called_with` works with `python -OO` * New `spec_set` keyword argument to `Mock` and `patch`. If used, attempting to *set* an attribute on a mock not on the spec will raise an `AttributeError` * Mocks created with a spec can now pass `isinstance` tests (`__class__` returns the type of the spec) * Added docstrings to all objects * Improved failure message for `Mock.assert_called_with` when the mock has not been called at all * Decorated functions / methods have their docstring and `__module__` preserved on Python 2.4. * BUGFIX: `mock.patch` now works correctly with certain types of objects that proxy attribute access, like the django settings object * BUGFIX: mocks are now copyable (thanks to Ned Batchelder for reporting and diagnosing this) * BUGFIX: `spec=True` works with old style classes * BUGFIX: ``help(mock)`` works now (on the module). Can no longer use ``__bases__`` as a valid sentinel name (thanks to Stephen Emslie for reporting and diagnosing this) * BUGFIX: ``side_effect`` now works with ``BaseException`` exceptions like ``KeyboardInterrupt`` * BUGFIX: `reset_mock` caused infinite recursion when a mock is set as its own return value * BUGFIX: patching the same object twice now restores the patches correctly * with statement tests now skipped on Python 2.4 * Tests require unittest2 (or unittest2-py3k) to run * Tested with `tox <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/tox>`_ on Python 2.4 - 3.2, jython and pypy (excluding 3.0) * Added 'build_sphinx' command to setup.py (requires setuptools or distribute) Thanks to Florian Bauer * Switched from subversion to mercurial for source code control * `Konrad Delong <http://konryd.blogspot.com/>`_ added as co-maintainer

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