People interested in optional static typing in Python should look at the types SIG http://www.python.org/pipermail/types-sig/ which is experiencing a flood of activity, (including unauthorized use of Guido's time-machine).

Meanwhile, a minor flood of announcements in Pythondom:

Jean-Claude Wippler announces that MetaKit (a fast, lightweight embedded DB library with surprising capabilities) is now Open Source http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=561017677 http://www.equi4.com/metakit/

Last week we saw the announcement that DISLIN (a cross platform plotting package) comes with Python bindings; this week Paul Magwene announces a Python OO wrapper library http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=560482093

A bug fix release of Zope http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=560591351

A new release of PyQt/PyKDE (now compiling on Windows NT) from Phil Thompson http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=562647925

A very early (developer only) release of Python Builder (an IDE for the keyboard impared) is now available from Cliff Baeseman http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=560830466

William Annis releases a developer-only snapshot of Mom - a Unix system monitoring tool (primary platform: Solaris) http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=561060235

John Aycock announces an early version of his Decompyle package (reconstruct source from bytecodes) http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=563144526

Two juicy tidbits in the "completely different" category:

Looking for something interesting to do with that huge power-sucking box in the basement? IBM has posted instructions on porting Python 1.4 to OS/390 http://www2.s390.ibm.com/products/oe/python.html (If you have a spare, please ship one to Tim, so he can test floating point conformance <wink>.)

Those in search of a license model might consider Just van Rossum's unique approach http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=562607678

Don't forget that the early-bird prices for the Python conference expire on January 5th http://www.python.org/workshops/2000-01/

========================================================================

Everything you want is probably one or two clicks away in these pages:

Python.org's Python Language Website is the center of Pythonia http://www.python.org

Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group mailing lists http://www.python.org/sigs/

Python Consortium emerges as an independent nexus of activity http://www.python.org/consortium

Python To-Do List anticipates some of Python's future direction http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/todo.py

Python Journal is at work on its second issue http://www.pythonjournal.com

Links2Go is a new semi-automated link collection; it's impressive what AI can generate http://www.links2go.com/search?search=python

Archive probing trick of the trade: http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=&DBS=2&ST=PS&defaultOp=AN...

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here: http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html or http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=~g%20comp.lang.python%20Python-URL%21

Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome. http://www.egroups.com/list/python-url-leads/

To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning, ask claird@neosoft.com 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. ==

Cameron Laird claird@NeoSoft.com Business: http://www.Phaseit.net Personal: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html