Mailman 3 March 2001 - Python-Dev

(Don't Read If You're Busy With 2.1b2) "Rich" Comparisons?
by Martin v. Loewis March 24, 2001

March 24, 2001

>> The mathematical definition for max() I learned in Calculus 101 was >> "the smallest element which is > then all arguments" > >Then I guess American and Dutch calculus are different. [from Israeli calculus] The missing bit linking the two (sup and max) is "The supremum of S is equal to its maximum if S possesses a greatest member." [http://www.cenius.fsnet.co.uk/refer/maths/articles/s/supremum.html] So given a subset of a lattice, it may not have a maximum, but it will always have a supremum. It appears that the Python max function differs from the mathematical maximum in that respect: max will return a value, even if that is not the "largest value"; the mathematical maximum might give no value. Regards, Martin

3 3

setup.py is too aggressive
by Moshe Zadka March 24, 2001

March 24, 2001

It seems to me setup.py tries to build libraries even when it's impossible E.g., I had to add the patch attached so I will get no more ImportErrors where the module shouts at me that it could not find a symbol. *** Python-2.1b2/setup.py Wed Mar 21 09:44:53 2001 --- Python-2.1b2-changed/setup.py Sat Mar 24 10:49:20 2001 *************** *** 326,331 **** --- 326,334 ---- if (self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'ndbm')): exts.append( Extension('dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'], libraries = ['ndbm'] ) ) + elif (self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'db1')): + exts.append( Extension('dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'], + libraries = ['db1'] ) ) else: exts.append( Extension('dbm', ['dbmmodule.c']) ) *************** *** 348,353 **** --- 351,358 ---- dblib = [] if self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'db'): dblib = ['db'] + if self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'db1'): + dblib = ['db1'] db185_incs = find_file('db_185.h', inc_dirs, ['/usr/include/db3', '/usr/include/db2']) -- "I'll be ex-DPL soon anyway so I'm |LUKE: Is Perl better than Python? looking for someplace else to grab power."|YODA: No...no... no. Quicker, -- Wichert Akkerman (on debian-private)| easier, more seductive. For public key, finger moshez(a)debian.org |http://www.{python,debian,gnu}.org

1 0

Py2.1b2/bsddb build problems
by Moshe Zadka March 24, 2001

March 24, 2001

setup.py needs the following lines: if self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'db1'): dblib = ['db1'] (right after if self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'db'): dblib = ['db']) To creat bsddb correctly on my system (otherwise it gets installed but cannot be imported) I'm using Debian sid -- "I'll be ex-DPL soon anyway so I'm |LUKE: Is Perl better than Python? looking for someplace else to grab power."|YODA: No...no... no. Quicker, -- Wichert Akkerman (on debian-private)| easier, more seductive. For public key, finger moshez(a)debian.org |http://www.{python,debian,gnu}.org

1 0

Python 2.1b2 released
by Guido van Rossum March 24, 2001

March 24, 2001

On time, and with a minimum of fuss, we've released Python 2.1b2. Thanks again to the many developers who contributed! Check it out on the Python website: http://www.python.org/2.1/ or on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5470&release_id=28334 As it behooves a second beta release, there's no really big news since 2.1b1 was released on March 2: - Bugs fixed and documentation added. There's now an appendix of the Reference Manual documenting nested scopes: http://python.sourceforge.net/devel-docs/ref/futures.html - When nested scopes are enabled by "from __future__ import nested_scopes", this also applies to exec, eval() and execfile(), and into the interactive interpreter (when using -i). - Assignment to the internal global variable __debug__ is now illegal. - unittest.py, a unit testing framework by Steve Purcell (PyUNIT, inspired by JUnit), is now part of the standard library. See the PyUnit webpage for documentation: http://pyunit.sourceforge.net/ Andrew Kuchling has written (and is continuously updating) an extensive overview: What's New in Python 2.1: http://www.amk.ca/python/2.1/ See also the Release notes posted on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=28334 We are planning to make the final release of Python 2.1 on April 13; we may release a release candidate a week earlier. We're also planning a bugfix release for Python 2.0, dubbed 2.0.1; we don't have a release schedule for this yet. We could use a volunteer to act as the bug release manager! --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

2 1

(Don't Read If You're Busy With 2.1b2) "Rich" Comparisons?
by Moshe Zadka March 24, 2001

March 24, 2001

Now that we have rich comparisons, I've suddenly realized they are not rich enough. Consider a set type. >>> a = set([1,2]) >>> b = set([1,3]) >>> a>b 0 >>> a<b 0 >>> max(a,b) == a 1 While I'd like >>> max(a,b) == set([1,2,3]) >>> min(a,b) == set([1]) In current Python, there's no way to do it. I'm still thinking about this. If it bothers anyone else, I'd be happy to know about it. -- "I'll be ex-DPL soon anyway so I'm |LUKE: Is Perl better than Python? looking for someplace else to grab power."|YODA: No...no... no. Quicker, -- Wichert Akkerman (on debian-private)| easier, more seductive. For public key, finger moshez(a)debian.org |http://www.{python,debian,gnu}.org

6 9

[Fwd: Python 2.1b2 released]
by Paul Prescod March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Python 2.1b2 released Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 17:29:02 -0500 From: Guido van Rossum <guido(a)digicool.com> To: python-dev(a)python.org, Python mailing list <python-list(a)python.org>,python-announce(a)python.org On time, and with a minimum of fuss, we've released Python 2.1b2. Thanks again to the many developers who contributed! Check it out on the Python website: http://www.python.org/2.1/ or on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5470&release_id=28334 As it behooves a second beta release, there's no really big news since 2.1b1 was released on March 2: - Bugs fixed and documentation added. There's now an appendix of the Reference Manual documenting nested scopes: http://python.sourceforge.net/devel-docs/ref/futures.html - When nested scopes are enabled by "from __future__ import nested_scopes", this also applies to exec, eval() and execfile(), and into the interactive interpreter (when using -i). - Assignment to the internal global variable __debug__ is now illegal. - unittest.py, a unit testing framework by Steve Purcell (PyUNIT, inspired by JUnit), is now part of the standard library. See the PyUnit webpage for documentation: http://pyunit.sourceforge.net/ Andrew Kuchling has written (and is continuously updating) an extensive overview: What's New in Python 2.1: http://www.amk.ca/python/2.1/ See also the Release notes posted on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=28334 We are planning to make the final release of Python 2.1 on April 13; we may release a release candidate a week earlier. We're also planning a bugfix release for Python 2.0, dubbed 2.0.1; we don't have a release schedule for this yet. We could use a volunteer to act as the bug release manager! --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

1 0

auto-import rlcompleter instead of readline?
by Flying Cougar Burnette March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

Hey Folks, When running an interactive interpreter python currently tries to import "readline", ostensibly to make your interactive experience a little easier (with history, extra keybindings, etc). For a while now we python has also shipped with a standard module called "rlcompleter" which adds name completion to the readline functionality. Can anyone think of a good reason why we don't import rlcompleter instead of readline by default? I can give you a good reason why it *should*, but I'd rather not bore anyone with the details if I don't have to. All in favor, snag the following patch.... ------------%< snip %<----------------------%< snip %<------------ Index: Modules/main.c =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Modules/main.c,v retrieving revision 1.51 diff -r1.51 main.c 290c290 < v = PyImport_ImportModule("readline"); --- > v = PyImport_ImportModule("rlcompleter");

4 4

Anyone using weakrefs?
by Fred L. Drake, Jr. March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

Is anyone out there playing with the weak references support yet? I'd *really* appreciate receiving a short snippet of non-contrived code that makes use of weak references to use in the documentation. Thanks! -Fred -- Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at acm.org> PythonLabs at Digital Creations

1 0

[development doc updates]
by fdrake＠localhost.localdomain March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

The development version of the documentation has been updated: http://python.sourceforge.net/devel-docs/ Documentation for the second beta release of Python 2.1. This includes information on future statements and lexical scoping, and weak references. Much of the module documentation has been improved as well.

1 0

Doc/ tree frozen for 2.1b2 release
by Fred L. Drake, Jr. March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

I'm freezing the doc tree until after the 2.1b2 release is made. Please do not make any further checkins there. Thanks! -Fred -- Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at acm.org> PythonLabs at Digital Creations

1 0