QOTW: "I find it hard to believe nobody has tried this yet, unless it's the case that those who know how to do it also know that it's actually not possible for some reason..." -- Peter Hansen http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249134.html "Some people may actually want to drink poisoned kool-aid and join the great wise extraterrestrials on their comet in the skies." -- Alex Martelli responding to the idea that some programmers may actually want "a" + 10 == 10. http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249191.html Zunbeltz Izaola has a problem passing an exception between threads in a wxPython application. A couple different approaches are offered: custom events and using a queue to store the traceback. Peter Hansen suggests a possible avenue using ctypes, but quickly becomes mired in an argument with himself before Thomas Heller finally rescues him: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248979.html BJörn Lindqvist wonders why wxPython isn't in the standard library. Roger Binns and others offer their insight. Amazingly not one person is flamed during the exchange and a potentially endless thread ends as suddenly as it began: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249562.html Wolfgang Keller wonders about using JMS from CPython via JPype. David Morgenthaler offers a solution which appears to impress Wolfgang. I don't know anything about this, so draw your own conclusions here about whether David's example is truly amazing or Wolfgang is simply easily impressed: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248987.html Vinay Sajip announces a new configuration module which prompts some discussion over file formats are best expressed in Python itself or a specialized language: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249133.html The Eternal Squire tables PEP 336 which suggests making None callable. Yes, that's his name: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249224.html Michele Simionato offers a string-interpolation recipe using string.Template from Python 2.4: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249237.html More about string.Template: http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/whatsnew/node5.html http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/304004 Maurice LING wonders why Python is slower than Java. This turns into a discussion on netiquette, smart questions and the general atmosphere of [in]tolerance on c.l.py: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249413.html Gabriel Zachmann asks about a generic way to access C++ libraries from Python. The consensus doesn't sound promising: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249513.html Alan Gauld announces a new "web-tutor for beginners". No announcement has yet been made regarding a web-tutor for experts: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249730.html http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/ Mike Thompson is puzzled by interning strings which leads to some enlightening exposition by Peter Otten, et al, on how Python chooses to intern strings and how users can utilize this functionality in their own code: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/249734.html syd wonders about a way to return a subset from a large list of instances of similar classes. A couple different solutions are offered and the discussion turns to new- versus old-style classes: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248886.html Stephen Ferg takes on the twice-yearly task of reminding everyone that Python is doomed without a CPAN equivalent, meets with the ritual retorts and everyone eventually moves on, satisfied that we need not discuss this again until next April: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248934.html Gabriel Zachmann starts what appears to be the longest thread of the week with a discussion on the definition of strong/weak typing. In typical c.l.py fashion, supercooled fluids are offered as a possible explanation: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-November/248915.html ======================================================================== 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. 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 Brett Cannon continues the marvelous tradition established by Andrew Kuchling and Michael Hudson 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. *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... 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