QOTW: "I think you've got the wrong intuition about the balance between the amount of bandwidth and the amount of computation a given numer [sic] of dollars would buy. You've hundreds of CPU cycles available per bit transmitted; space enough to stick in even Python." - Thomas Womack (on comp.lang.lisp, earlier this year, so it's not a true QOTW) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/453239d7b8e0ef72 "I'm a recent, belated convert from Perl. I work in a physics lab and have been using Python to automate a lot of measurement equipment lately. It works fabulously for this purpose." - Dan Lenski On the subject of Python and large volumes of data, it would seem that maps and data visualisation are a natural combination for the pydap treatment: http://taoetc.org/27 "MIT to try Python ...": http://www.amk.ca/diary/2006/11/mit_to_try_python_for_introduc.html A treatment of many different domains can be found in the itools package (and the 21 subpackages of the 0.14.5 release!): http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python.announce/browse_frm/thread/4... http://www.ikaaro.org/itools Problems with Python 2.5 portability? Or, more precisely, with extension modules not working with the new release? http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-November/069967.html BaseHTTPRequestHandler accesses POST data through rfile: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/c928f2a... pyparsing and itertools: wise coders ready to move past RE know 'em both: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/85646f5... Is comparing Python and PHP a "fair comparison"? The debate focuses on many things that make languages popular for Web applications: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/4156e7f6d5... The big news outside the Python community last week was the surprising GPL-licensing of many of Sun's Java technologies. So, will GPL-licensed Java eat into Python's market share? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/e52bf7ac89... All these comparisons whet the appetite for some real advocacy, coordinated by the Python Software Foundation's own man: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python.announce/browse_frm/thread/c... Advocacy applies at all levels, of course, backed up by comparisons, tests, benchmarks... In the Web opinions shootout it's TurboGears vs. Django: http://groups.google.com/group/turbogears/browse_frm/thread/a37037677b067872 And Django vs. Rails: http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/msg/328151a262c00eb0 The conflict (good natured, of course) extends to literature as the TurboGears book hits the shelves: http://groups.google.com/group/turbogears/msg/318bfff14bcf0ef3 Whilst the Django book - still a work in progress - is readable in its evolving form: http://www.djangobook.com Decide between the Web programming options yourself, but without really installing anything. Be prepared for quite a choice, as noted by a Django lead developer on the TurboGears discussion group! http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/289 And even if you're a disinterested observer, the battle of these big frameworks still provides benefits to those just looking for decent Web hosting (and bringing us full circle to that PHP vs. Python discussion): http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/17718e04ab... Secure Python: is running untrusted code a good idea, and is it Python or the operating system who can offer the most help? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/fb27c42ee2... And what about "untrusted" contributors to your blog's comments. There's SpamBayes for e-mail, but can one filter blog comments in the same way? http://www.larsen-b.com/Article/244.html As people continually note, as CPython motors onward with many new features, Jython struggles to keep up. Could the biggest motivational force behind its revival really be the principal developer of JRuby? http://headius.blogspot.com/2006/11/jython-alive-and-well-and-looking-for.ht... But don't start to think that old releases of Python don't see any action. Here, Python 1.5.2 makes an appearance on Telit's GSM/GPRS telecoms/networking modules: http://www.telit.co.it/modules.asp?lang=1 ======================================================================== 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. For far, FAR more Python reading than any one mind should absorb, much of it quite interesting, several pages index much of the universe of Pybloggers. http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/PythonProgrammersWeblog http://www.planetpython.org/ http://mechanicalcat.net/pyblagg.html 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/python/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 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@pythonjournal.com and editor@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.pytho... 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*&start=0&scoring=d& http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html (dormant) or http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python 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 should get through. To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning (approximately), ask to subscribe. Mention "Python-URL!". Write to the same address to unsubscribe. -- The Python-URL! Team-- Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.