Mailman 3 January 2012 - Python-announce-list

[ANN] Summer School "Advanced Scientific Programming in Python" in Kiel, Germany
by Tiziano Zito 31 Jan '12

31 Jan '12

Advanced Scientific Programming in Python ========================================= a Summer School by the G-Node and the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have evolved, only few scientists actually use them. As a result, instead of doing their research, they spend far too much time writing deficient code and reinventing the wheel. In this course we will present a selection of advanced programming techniques, incorporating theoretical lectures and practical exercises tailored to the needs of a programming scientist. New skills will be tested in a real programming project: we will team up to develop an entertaining scientific computer game. We use the Python programming language for the entire course. Python works as a simple programming language for beginners, but more importantly, it also works great in scientific simulations and data analysis. We show how clean language design, ease of extensibility, and the great wealth of open source libraries for scientific computing and data visualization are driving Python to become a standard tool for the programming scientist. This school is targeted at Master or PhD students and Post-docs from all areas of science. Competence in Python or in another language such as Java, C/C++, MATLAB, or Mathematica is absolutely required. Basic knowledge of Python is assumed. Participants without any prior experience with Python should work through the proposed introductory materials before the course. Date and Location ================= September 2—7, 2012. Kiel, Germany. Preliminary Program =================== Day 0 (Sun Sept 2) — Best Programming Practices - Best Practices, Development Methodologies and the Zen of Python - Version control with git - Object-oriented programming & design patterns Day 1 (Mon Sept 3) — Software Carpentry - Test-driven development, unit testing & quality assurance - Debugging, profiling and benchmarking techniques - Best practices in data visualization - Programming in teams Day 2 (Tue Sept 4) — Scientific Tools for Python - Advanced NumPy - The Quest for Speed (intro): Interfacing to C with Cython - Advanced Python I: idioms, useful built-in data structures, generators Day 3 (Wed Sept 5) — The Quest for Speed - Writing parallel applications in Python - Programming project Day 4 (Thu Sept 6) — Efficient Memory Management - When parallelization does not help: the starving CPUs problem - Advanced Python II: decorators and context managers - Programming project Day 5 (Fri Sept 7) — Practical Software Development - Programming project - The Pelita Tournament Every evening we will have the tutors' consultation hour: Tutors will answer your questions and give suggestions for your own projects. Applications ============ You can apply on-line at http://python.g-node.org Applications must be submitted before 23:59 UTC, May 1, 2012. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by June 1, 2012. No fee is charged but participants should take care of travel, living, and accommodation expenses. Candidates will be selected on the basis of their profile. Places are limited: acceptance rate last time was around 20%. Prerequisites: You are supposed to know the basics of Python to participate in the lectures. You are encouraged to go through the introductory material available on the website. Faculty ======= - Francesc Alted, Continuum Analytics Inc., USA - Pietro Berkes, Enthought Inc., UK - Valentin Haenel, Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland - Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Poland - Eilif Muller, Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland - Emanuele Olivetti, NeuroInformatics Laboratory, Fondazione Bruno Kessler and University of Trento, Italy - Rike-Benjamin Schuppner, Technologit GbR, Germany - Bartosz Teleńczuk, Unité de Neurosciences Information et Complexité, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France - Stéfan van der Walt, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, USA - Bastian Venthur, Berlin Institute of Technology and Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology, Germany - Niko Wilbert, TNG Technology Consulting GmbH, Germany - Tiziano Zito, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany Organized by Christian T. Steigies and Christian Drews of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , and by Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek and Tiziano Zito for the German Neuroinformatics Node of the INCF. Website: http://python.g-node.org Contact: python-info(a)g-node.org

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pathlib 0.4
by Antoine Pitrou 30 Jan '12

30 Jan '12

Hello, I'm releasing pathlib 0.4 for Python 3.2 and later. * Download: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pathlib/ (you can probably use "pip install pathlib" or "easy_install pathlib" instead) * Documentation: http://readthedocs.org/docs/pathlib/en/latest/ * Issue tracker, repository: https://bitbucket.org/pitrou/pathlib/ What is pathlib --------------- pathlib offers a set of classes to handle filesystem paths. It offers the following advantages over using string objects: * No more cumbersome use of os and os.path functions. Everything can be done easily through operators, attribute accesses, and method calls. * Embodies the semantics of different path types. For example, comparing Windows paths ignores casing. * Well-defined semantics, eliminating any warts or ambiguities (forward vs. backward slashes, etc.). Examples -------- Importing the module classes:: >>> from pathlib import * Listing Python source files in a directory:: >>> p = Path('.') >>> [x for x in p if x.ext == '.py'] [PosixPath('test_pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py')] Listing subdirectories:: >>> [x for x in p if x.is_dir()] [PosixPath('.hg'), PosixPath('docs'), PosixPath('dist'), PosixPath('__pycache__'), PosixPath('build')] Navigating inside a directory tree:: >>> p = Path('/etc') >>> q = p['init.d/reboot'] >>> q PosixPath('/etc/init.d/reboot') >>> q.resolve() PosixPath('/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt') Querying path properties:: >>> q.exists() True >>> q.is_dir() False >>> q.st_mode 33261 Opening a file:: >>> with q.open() as f: f.readline() ... '#!/bin/bash\n' Regards Antoine Pitrou.

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virtualenvwrapper 3.0 - Python 3 support
by Doug Hellmann 30 Jan '12

30 Jan '12

What is virtualenvwrapper ========================= virtualenvwrapper is a set of extensions to Ian Bicking's virtualenv tool. The extensions include wrappers for creating and deleting virtual environments and otherwise managing your development workflow, making it easier to work on more than one project at a time without introducing conflicts in their dependencies. What's New in 3.0 ================= This release adds Python 3 support, thanks in large part to the efforts of Daniel Kraus. Tested under Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2. Installing ========== Visit the virtualenvwrapper project page (http://www.doughellmann.com/projects/virtualenvwrapper/) for download links and installation instructions.

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pyNVML - GPU Monitoring and Management
by Robert Alexander 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

I'm pleased to announce the release of pyNVML 2.285: Python Bindings for the NVIDIA Management Library. pyNVML provides programmatic access to static information and monitoring data for NVIDIA GPUs, as well as management capabilities. It exposes the functionality of the NVML library. See http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-management-library-nvml for more information about NVML. The pyNVML download package and its documentation can be found at: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/nvidia-ml-py/ http://packages.python.org/nvidia-ml-py/ pyNVML is currently used to report GPU information in Ganglia. Check it out at http://developer.nvidia.com/ganglia-monitoring-system Requires Python 2.5, or an earlier version with the ctypes module. Released under the BSD license. Robert Alexander NVIDIA Tesla Software Engineer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Constraints -//- first release -//- Flexible abstract class based validation for attributes, functions and code blocks
by Nathan Rice 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

PyPi name: constraintslib (you'll be dissapointed if you get constraints by accident) Docs: http://packages.python.org/constraintslib/ Github: https://github.com/nathan-rice/Constraints >From the docs: Constraints - Sleek contract-style validation tools =================================================== Constraints provides flexible validation tools for a variety of circumstances. All validation in constraints is done by type checking. Constraints provides a special abstract base class (Constraints) which facilitates on the fly construction of validation types. Constraints also provides a special class (Symbol) which can be used to generate natural, easy to read constraint expressions. for example:: >>> from constraints.proxy import Symbol >>> from constraints.constraints import Constraints >>> X = Symbol() >>> SizeConstraint = Constraints(X * 2 + 1 >= 5) >>> ModuloConstraint = Constraints(X % 2 != 0, X != 3) >>> CharacterConstraint = Constraints(X[-1] == "h") # My apologies for the lambda spam. I provide some functions in # constraints.util for this purpose... >>> callable_expr = lambda x: all(lambda x: isinstance(x, SizeConstraint), x) >>> CollectionConstraint = Constraint(callable_expr) >>> isinstance(1, SizeConstraint) False >>> isinstance(2, SizeConstraint) True >>> isinstance(1, ModuloConstraint) True >>> isinstance("blah", CharacterConstraint) True >>> isinstance([2, 3, 4, 5], CollectionConstraint) True Constraint instances also provide descriptors which will verify values at set time. For example:: >>> class Foo(object): ... x = Constraints(X > 2) ... >>> bar = Foo() >>> bar.x = 1 Traceback (most recent call last): ... AssertionError: Specified value (1) does not satisfy this constraint Design by contract style preconditions, postconditions and invariants are also supported, and can be used either as context managers or function decorators:: >>> x_pre = SizeConstraint.precondition("x") >>> x_post = SizeConstraint.postcondition("x") >>> x = 1 >>> with x_pre: ... do_stuff() ... Traceback (most recent call last): ... AssertionError: The value (1) did not meet the specified pre-condition >>> x = 5 >>> with x_post: ... x -= 4 ... Traceback (most recent call last): ... AssertionError: The value (1) did not meet the specified post-condition >>> @x_pre ... def foo(x): ... return x ... >>> foo(1) Traceback (most recent call last): ... AssertionError: The value (1) did not meet the specified pre-condition >>> @x_post ... def foo(x): ... return x - 5 ... >>> foo(6) Traceback (most recent call last): ... AssertionError: The value (1) did not meet the specified post-condition Symbol objects are very flexible, and provide a nice way to specify your constraints without resorting to a domain specific language. Symbol objects are fairly simple; whenever an operation is performed on them, they capture it and return a new Symbol object wrapping the operation so that it can be performed with concrete input at a later time. There are exceptions to this, for example isinstance, which uses the metaclass method, and the type constructors (str, int, bool, etc) which throw an error if the correct type is not returned.

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[ANN] Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.1 RC
by Dino Viehland 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

We're pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.1 RC. Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) is an open-source plug-in for Visual Studio which supports programming with the Python programming language. This release includes new core IDE features, a couple of new sample libraries for interacting with Kinect and Excel, and many bug fixes for issues reported since the release of 1.0. The 1.1 release altogether contains over 150 bug fixes and new features since 1.0. For the core IDE features we've added many new features which improve the basic editing experience. This includes a smart tag feature for automatically adding imports, a command for cleaning up unused imports, support for recognizing isinstance() calls and using them for providing improved completions. We've also updated goto definition to go to members defined in the standard library. We've also made several improvements to the project system. Some improvements which should help just about everyone include support for linked files that live outside of the project directory. This makes it easy to keep your project file separate from your code files. For IronPython users you can now add references to .NET projects or .NET assemblies and we'll automatically reload and re-analyze the references when they're rebuilt. For CPython users you can now add a reference to a .pyd extension module and we'll analyze the extension module and provide completions. We've also improved intellisense across multiple Python projects in the same solution. This release also includes some improvements to the interactive REPL window. This includes improvements to IPython REPL support including support for inline graphs and proper support for IPython's numbered prompts. We've added support for using IPython mode w/o PyLab - this enables out-of-line graphs and improves the startup time of the interactive window. The debugger has also seen several small improvements in this release. There's a new option to step into the Python standard library while debugging, another option to not break on SystemExit exception with exit codes of zero. Finally we've added support for displaying Python thread name in the threads window. We've also improved the Debug->Attach support and made it easier to attach to a process which is not actively running Python code. Another major addition to 1.1 includes the addition of two additional sample libraries available as separate downloads: PyKinect for working with the Kinect Beta SDK and Pyvot for working with Excel spreadsheets. Once downloaded and installed these plug-in to Visual Studio and provide templates; and they provide built-in support for installing into one of the recognized Python interpreters via Tools->Python Tools->Samples. The PyKinect sample is a wrapper around the Kinect SDK and enables development with the Kinect SDK directly from Python. The sample includes a new template for quickly getting started creating games using PyGame with PyKinect. PyKinect is licensed under a license similar to the existing Kinect SDK. Pyvot (pronounced Pivot) connects familiar data-exploration and visualization tools in Excel with the powerful data analysis and transformation capabilities of Python, with an emphasis on tabular data. It provides a simple and Pythonic interface to Excel, smoothing over the pain points in using the existing Excel object model as exposed via COM. We'd like to thank all of the users who took the time to report issues and feedback for this release: 445363200, adv12, Andrew, AphexSA, benpmorgan, chadbr, dgkbny, drgn, holmboe, hyh, jimpeak, juanalumni, kingnaoufal, lblanchon, liuzhenhai, mahpour, MichaelBaker, po6856, pztrick44, RobertMcGinley, salerio, slide_o_mix, somini, SoonStudios, stakemura, stephenkennedy, sumitbasu, swift_dev, synergetic, teebot, tiphon, timeisaparallax, tonyandrewmeyer, xavier_grundus, and Zooba. Thanks, The Python Tools for Visual Studio Team

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ANN: pyftpdlib 0.7.0 released
by Giampaolo Rodolà 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hi, I'm pleased to announce release 0.7.0 of Python FTP Server library (pyftpdlib). http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/ === About === Python FTP server library provides an high-level portable interface to easily write asynchronous FTP/S servers with Python. pyftpdlib is currently the most complete RFC-959 FTP server implementation available for Python programming language. === sendfile() === sendfile(2) system call usage has finally been introduced. sendfile(2) provides a "zero-copy" way of copying data from one file descriptor to another (a socket). The phrase "zero-copy" refers to the fact that all of the copying of data between the two descriptors is done entirely by the kernel, with no copying of data into userspace buffers, resuting in file transfers (RETR, hence from server to client) being from 2x to 3x faster. A simple benchmark: pyftpdlib 0.6.0: 693.41 MB/sec pyftpdlib 0.7.0: 1694.14 MB/sec proftpd 1.3.4rc2: 1313.77 MB/sec vsftpd 2.3.2: 1505.18 MB/sec In order to use sendfile(2) you'll have to install pysendfile module first (UNIX only): http://code.google.com/p/pysendfile/ === Faster scheduler === The internal scheduler, governed by CallLater and CallEvery classes, has been rewritten from scratch and it is an order of magnitue faster, especially for operations like cancel() which are involved when clients are disconnected (hence invoked very often). Some benchmarks: schedule: +0.5x reschedule: +1.7x cancel: +477x (with 1 milion scheduled functions) run: +8x Also, a single scheduled function now consumes 1/3 of the memory thanks to __slots__ usage. For further details see: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/issues/detail?id=189 === SITE CHMOD === This new version supports SITE CHMOD command, meaning the client is now able to change file mode bits by issuing "SITE CHMOD path mode" command. The authorizer now accepts a new "M" permission bit, which, when specified, enables SITE CHMOD usage: >>> authorizer = DummyAuthorizer() >>> authorizer.add_user('user', 'password', '/home/user', perm='elradfmwM') === Other improvements === * on_failed_login() callback: this is called when user provides wrong credentials. * CallEvery class: same as CallLater, but keeps calling a function every X seconds. * A benchmark script: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/source/browse/trunk/test/bench.py * Anti flood demo script: http://pyftpdlib.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demo/anti_flood_ftpd.py A complete list of changes including enhancements and bug fixes is available here: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/wiki/ReleaseNotes07 === More links === * Source tarball: http://pyftpdlib.googlecode.com/files/pyftpdlib-0.7.0.tar.gz * Online docs: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/wiki/Tutorial * FAQs: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/wiki/FAQ * RFCs compliance paper: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/wiki/RFCsCompliance * Issue tracker: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/issues/list If you think pyftpdlib is worth a donation you can do so by going here: http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/wiki/Donate Thanks, --- Giampaolo Rodola' http://code.google.com/p/pyftpdlib/ http://code.google.com/p/psutil/ http://code.google.com/p/pysendfile/

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Matplotlib and optimization tutorials at PyCon US
by Mike Müller 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hi, I will be giving a matplotlib and a optimization tutorial at PyCon in March. The first tutorial is a compact introduction to matplotlib. The optimization tutorial gives an overview over this topic. BTW, the early bird deadline is today. Mike Plotting with matplotlib ------------------------ Instructor: Mike Müller Type:Tutorial Audience level:Novice Category:Useful libraries March 8th 9 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. https://us.pycon.org/2012/schedule/presentation/238/ When it comes to plotting with Python many people think about matplotlib. It is widely used and provides a simple interface for creating a wide variety of plots from very simple diagrams to sophisticated animations. This tutorial is a hands-on introduction that teaches the basics of matplotlib. Students will learn how to create publication-ready plots with just a few lines of Python. Faster Python Programs through Optimization ------------------------------------------- Instructor: Mike Müller Type:Tutorial Audience level:Experienced Category:Best Practices/Patterns March 7th 9 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. https://us.pycon.org/2012/schedule/presentation/245/ This tutorial provides an overview of techniques to improve the performance of Python programs. The focus is on concepts such as profiling, difference of data structures and algorithms as well as a selection of tools and libraries that help to speed up Python.

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Course "Python for Scientists and Engineers" in Chicago
by Mike Müller 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Course "Python for Scientists and Engineers" in Chicago ======================================================= There will be a comprehensive Python course for scientists and engineers in Chicago end of February / beginning of March 2012. It consists of a 3-day intro and a 2-day advanced section. Both sections can be taken separately or combined. More details below and here: http://www.dabeaz.com/chicago/science.html Please let friends or colleagues who might be interested in such a course know about it. 3-Day Intro Section ------------------- - Overview of Scientific and Technical Libraries for Python. - Numerical Calculations with NumPy - Storage and Processing of Large Amounts of Data - Graphical Presentation of Scientific Data with matplotlib - Object Oriented Programming for Scientific and Technical Projects - Open Time for Problem Solving 2-Day Advanced Section ---------------------- - Extending Python with Other Languages - Unit Testing - Version Control with Mercurial The Details ----------- The course is hosted by David Beazley (http://www.dabeaz.com). Date: Feb 27 - Mar 2, 2012 Location: Chicago, IL, USA Trainer: Mike Müller Course Language: English Link: http://www.dabeaz.com/chicago/science.html

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RedNotebook 1.3
by Jendrik Seipp 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

A new RedNotebook version has been released. You can get the tarball, the Windows installer and links to distribution packages at http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net/downloads.html What is RedNotebook? -------------------- RedNotebook is a **graphical journal** and diary helping you keep track of notes and thoughts. It includes a calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality and word clouds. You can also format, tag and search your entries. RedNotebook is available in the repositories of most common Linux distributions and a Windows installer is available. It is written in Python and uses GTK+ for its interface. What's new? ----------- * Let tags be categories without entries. This greatly simplifies and in fact unifies tags and categories. * Unify clouds and search -> Show the search bar above the clouds When a search is made, substitute the word cloud with the search results. * Apply styling for thick horizontal lines - Thin line: -------------------- - Thick line: ==================== * Apply formatting only once if a format button is clicked multiple times * Allow "Close to tray" only on Windows as most modern Linux distros don't have a tray anymore (lp:902228) If you still want the tray icon, set closeToTray=1 in the configuration file. * Make journal saving more than twice as fast by using libyaml. * Change Ctrl-PageUp(Down) directions to be more intuitive * Update and revise help text * Fix: utf-8 special chars not displayed correctly in html export for firefox (LP:910094) * Fix: Do not abort if a wrong regex is entered * Fix: Correctly highlight all picture formats in edit mode * Fix: When the format button is clicked and a tag is selected, format it instead of the editor pane * Write month only if changes are actually made (LP:871730) * Call categories tags in more places * Print PDF export path after export * Do not warn if second instance is suspected (too many false-positives) * Updated translations Cheers, Jendrik

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