Mailman 3 September 2000 - Python-Dev

Pragma-style declaration syntax
by M.-A. Lemburg 02 Sep '00

02 Sep '00

I've been tossing some ideas around w/r to adding pragma style declarations to Python and would like to hear what you think about these: 1. Embed pragma declarations in comments: #pragma: name = value Problem: comments are removed by the tokenizer, yet the compiler will have to make use of them, so some logic would be needed to carry them along. 2. Reusing a Python keyword to build a new form of statement: def name = value Problem: not sure whether the compiler and grammar could handle this. The nice thing about this kind of declaration is that it would generate a node which the compiler could actively use. Furthermore, scoping would come for free. This one is my favourite. 3. Add a new keyword: decl name = value Problem: possible code breakage. This is only a question regarding the syntax of these meta- information declarations. The semantics remain to be solved in a different discussion. Comments ? Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg ______________________________________________________________________ Business: http://www.lemburg.com/ Python Pages: http://www.lemburg.com/python/

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Re: [Python-Dev] test_gettext.py fails on 64-bit architectures
by bwarsaw＠beopen.com 02 Sep '00

02 Sep '00

>>>>> "MF" == Mark Favas <m.favas(a)per.dem.csiro.au> writes: MF> Close, but no cigar - fixes the miscalculation of BE_MAGIC, MF> but "magic" is still read from the .mo file as MF> 0xffffffff950412de (the 64-bit rep of the 32-bit negative MF> integer 0x950412de) Thanks to a quick chat with Tim, who is always quick to grasp the meat of the issue, we realize we need to & 0xffffffff all the 32 bit unsigned ints we're reading out of the .mo files. I'll work out a patch, and check it in after a test on 32-bit Linux. Watch for it, and please try it out on your box. Thanks, -Barry

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lookdict
by Vladimir.Marangozov＠inrialpes.fr 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

I'd like to request some clarifications on the recently checked dict patch. How it is supposed to work and why is this solution okay? What's the exact purpose of the 2nd string specialization patch? Besides that, I must say that now the interpreter is noticeably slower and MAL and I were warning you kindly about this code, which was fine tuned over the years. It is very sensible and was optimized to death. The patch that did make it was labeled "not ready" and I would have appreciated another round of review. Not that I disagree, but now I feel obliged to submit another patch to make some obvious perf improvements (at least), which simply duplicates work... Fred would have done them very well, but I haven't had the time to say much about the implementation because the laconic discussion on the Patch Manager went about functionality. Now I'd like to bring this on python-dev and see what exactly happened to lookdict and what the BeOpen team agreed on regarding this function. -- Vladimir MARANGOZOV | Vladimir.Marangozov(a)inrialpes.fr http://sirac.inrialpes.fr/~marangoz | tel:(+33-4)76615277 fax:76615252

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threadmodule.c comment error? (from comp.lang.python)
by Fredrik Lundh 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

as noted by curtis jensen over at comp.lang.python: the parse tuple string doesn't quite match the error message given if the 2nd argument isn't a tuple. on the other hand, the args argument is initialized to NULL... thread_PyThread_start_new_thread(PyObject *self, PyObject *fargs) { PyObject *func, *args = NULL, *keyw = NULL; struct bootstate *boot; if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(fargs, "OO|O:start_new_thread", &func, &args, &keyw)) return NULL; if (!PyCallable_Check(func)) { PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "first arg must be callable"); return NULL; } if (!PyTuple_Check(args)) { PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "optional 2nd arg must be a tuple"); return NULL; } if (keyw != NULL && !PyDict_Check(keyw)) { PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "optional 3rd arg must be a dictionary"); return NULL; } what's the right way to fix this? (change the error message and remove the initialization, or change the parsetuple string and the tuple check) </F>

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Prerelease Python fun on Windows!
by Tim Peters 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

A prerelease of the Python2.0b1 Windows installer is now available via anonymous FTP, from python.beopen.com file /pub/windows/beopen-python2b1p1-20000901.exe 5,766,988 bytes Be sure to set FTP Binary mode before you get it. This is not *the* release. Indeed, the docs are still from some old pre-beta version of Python 1.6 (sorry, Fred, but I'm really sleepy!). What I'm trying to test here is the installer, and the basic integrity of the installation. A lot has changed, and we hope all for the better. Points of particular interest: + I'm running a Win98SE laptop. The install works great for me. How about NT? 2000? 95? ME? Win64 <shudder>? + For the first time ever, the Windows installer should *not* require adminstrator privileges under NT or 2000. This is untested. If you log in as an adminstrator, it should write Python's registry info under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. If not an adminstrator, it should pop up an informative message and write the registry info under HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead. Does this work? This prerelease includes a patch from Mark Hammond that makes Python look in HKCU before HKLM (note that that also allows users to override the HKLM settings, if desired). + Try python lib/test/regrtest.py test_socket is expected to fail if you're not on a network, or logged into your ISP, at the time your run the test suite. Otherwise test_socket is expected to pass. All other tests are expected to pass (although, as always, a number of Unix-specific tests should get skipped). + Get into a DOS-box Python, and try import Tkinter Tkinter._test() This installation of Python should not interfere with, or be damaged by, any other installation of Tcl/Tk you happen to have lying around. This is also the first time we're using Tcl/Tk 8.3.2, and that needs wider testing too. + If the Tkinter test worked, try IDLE! Start -> Programs -> Python20 -> IDLE. + There is no time limit on this installation. But if you use it for more than 30 days, you're going to have to ask us to pay you <wink>. windows!-it's-not-just-for-breakfast-anymore-ly y'rs - tim

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Cookie.py security
by A.M. Kuchling 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

[CC'ed to python-dev and Tim O'Malley] The Cookie module recently added to 2.0 provides 3 classes of Cookie: SimpleCookie, which treats cookie values as simple strings, SerialCookie, which treats cookie values as pickles and unpickles them, and SmartCookie which figures out if the value is a pickle or not. Unpickling untrusted data is unsafe. (Correct?) Therefore, SerialCookie and SmartCookie really shouldn't be used, and Moshe's docs for the module say so. Question: should SerialCookie and SmartCookie be removed? If they're not there, people won't accidentally use them because they didn't read the docs and missed the warning. Con: breaks backward compatibility with the existing cookie module and forks the code. (Are marshals safer than pickles? What if SerialCookie used marshal instead?) --amk

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cPickle.c out-of-date w.r.t. version in Zope 2.2.1
by Skip Montanaro 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

I'm trying to get Zope 2.2.1 to build to I can use gc to track down a memory leak. In working my way through some compilation errors I noticed that Zope's cPickle.c appears to be somewhat different than Python's version. (Haven't checked cStringIO.c yet, but I imagine there may be a couple differences there as well.) Should we try to sync them up before 2.0b1? Before 2.0final? Wait until 2.1? If so, should I post a patch to the SourceForge Patch Manager or send diffs to Jim (or both)? Skip

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Re: [Python-checkins] CVS: python/dist/src/Objects abstract.c,2.50,2.51
by Thomas Wouters 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

On Thu, Aug 31, 2000 at 07:39:03PM -0700, Guido van Rossum wrote: > Add parens suggested by gcc -Wall. No! This groups the checks wrong. HASINPLACE(v) *has* to be true for any of the other tests to happen. I apologize for botching the earlier 2 versions and failing to check them, I've been a bit swamped in work the past week :P I've checked them in the way they should be. (And checked, with gcc -Wall, this time. The error is really gone.) > ! else if (HASINPLACE(v) > && ((v->ob_type->tp_as_sequence != NULL && > ! (f = v->ob_type->tp_as_sequence->sq_inplace_concat) != NULL)) > || (v->ob_type->tp_as_number != NULL && > (f = v->ob_type->tp_as_number->nb_inplace_add) != NULL)) > --- 814,821 ---- > return x; > } > ! else if ((HASINPLACE(v) > && ((v->ob_type->tp_as_sequence != NULL && > ! (f = v->ob_type->tp_as_sequence->sq_inplace_concat) > ! != NULL))) > || (v->ob_type->tp_as_number != NULL && > (f = v->ob_type->tp_as_number->nb_inplace_add) != NULL)) -- Thomas Wouters <thomas(a)xs4all.net> Hi! I'm a .signature virus! copy me into your .signature file to help me spread!

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DEBUG_SAVEALL feature for gc not in 2.0b1?
by Martin von Loewis 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

> Does this look okay? Should I try to get it done for 2.0? I don't see the need for improvement. I consider it a fairly low-level API, so having bit masks is fine: users dealing with this settings should know what a bit mask is. As for the naming of the specific flags: So far, all of them are for debugging, as would be the proposed DEBUG_SAVEALL. You also have set/get_threshold, which clearly controls a different kind of setting. Unless you come up with ten or so additional settings that *must* be there, I don't see the need for generalizing the API. Why is gc.set_option(gc.THRESHOLD, 1000, 100, 10) so much better than gc.set_threshold(1000, 100, 10) ??? Even if you find the need for a better API, it should be possible to support the current one for a couple more years, no? Martin

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linuxaudiodev test does nothing
by Jeremy Hylton 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

Is the test for linuxaudiodev supposed to play the Spanish Inquistion .au file? I just realized that the test does absolutely nothing on my machine. (I guess I need to get my ears to raise an exception if they don't hear anything.) I can play the .au file and I use a variety of other audio tools regularly. Is Peter still maintaining it or can someone else offer some assistance? Jeremy

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