QOTW: "Not tested but confident should be an oxymoron for a programmer." - Peter Otten (Asked "Is this unsurprising if I look at it right?") - "Yes; in general this is true across many domains for a very large number of referents of "it" :-)" - John Machin "Strong typing means there [are] a lot of variables whose names are in ALL CAPS." - Paul Rubin One common Python "gotcha" is that default argument values are only evaluated once, at function definition time. David Isaac wanted to know where the values are stored: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b0... A new era in Python package management? http://dirtsimple.org/2005/05/easyinstall-new-era-in-python-package.html Markus would like to limit his Python script to a fixed percentage of CPU usage: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/17... How do you drive-by-wire a car using Python? The Pegasus Team is doing some very cool stuff with Python - but I'd want to see their test results before going within a mile of the thing. http://pegasusbridge.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-do-you-drive-by-wire-car-using... Michael Smith wanted to check poker-dice rolls to see if they were a full house. Raymond Hettinger gives him general purpose card hand detection code: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/1e... George asks for help with a regexp to do quoted string parsing, then is shown the light, and uses PyParsing instead. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/77... Fuzzyman tells us how to build a Movable Python CD - that is, Python that you can run straight off the CD without any installation - with a custom set of packages: http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/weblog/arch_d7_2005_05_21.shtml#e48 Why is Python case-sensitive? Because mathematical notation is, apparently: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/6c... Mark Williamson has difficulty generating API documentation. Python still needs a javadoc analogue that doesn't import code, it seems: http://www.pagefall.com/musings/2005/05/27/twisted,python,documentation,arrg... Gabor would like to be able to write to a single text file from multiple processes simultaneously. This is hard. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/47... Eval is unsafe at any speed. Duncan Booth takes on all comers and shows that you can do dangerous things with eval regardless of attempts to make it safe: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/cb... Notable releases: Twisted 2.0.1 http://twistedmatrix.com/ wxPython 2.6.0.1 http://wxpython.org/ IPython 0.6.14 http://ipython.scipy.org/ ======================================================================== 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 Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer continue the marvelous tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson and Brett Cannon 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/ The Python Business Forum "further[s] the interests of companies that base their business on ... Python." http://www.python-in-business.org 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 Cetus collects Python hyperlinks. 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://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html 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/topics/pythonurl/ (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 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!". -- The Python-URL! Team-- Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.