Mailman 3 September 2003 - Python-Dev

Re: [Python-Dev] [development doc updates]
by Thomas Heller 27 Sep '03

27 Sep '03

"Fred L. Drake" <fdrake(a)acm.org> writes: > The development version of the documentation has been updated: > > http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ > > The new glossary in the tutorial is really nice! Sure, but the hyperlinks don't work ;-) Thomas

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PEP on patch processing
by Michael Bartl 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

Hi! Martin v. Löwis has previously posted a guide on how to successfully process patches on this mailinglist. I just wanted to ask if there is interest in a PEP about that topic, because I couldn't find any relevant information on python.org. If you do not agree with me I still would recommend to put it on the developers pages on python.org. ... just an idea regards, Michael Bartl

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PyCon Announcement: Mitch Kapor is opening keynote speaker
by PyCon Chair 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

[Apologies to people who see this twice; there was a glitch in the original sending.] Mitch Kapor to Keynote PyCon DC 2004 ------------------------------------ Washington, DC, September 24, 2003 The Python Software Foundation announced today that Mitch Kapor will be the opening keynote speaker for their second US Python community conference next March. Mr. Kapor is well known as a co-founder of Lotus Development Corporation and as a co-founder and the first chairman of the San Francisco-based Electronic Freedom Foundation, and has been an active entrepreneur in information technology for many years. More recently he founded the Open Software Applications Foundation (OSAF - see http://www.osafoundation.org/). The OSAF is using Python to build Chandler, an open source Personal Information Manager. PyCon is a community-oriented conference for developers of Python applications and for those with an interest in the development of the Python programming language. It offers the opportunity to learn about significant advances in Python's uses and development community, to participate in a programming sprint with some of the leading minds in the Open Source community, and to meet fellow developers from around the world. The organizers work to make the conference affordable and accessible to all. Pycon DC 2004 will be held March 24-26, 2004 in Washington, D.C. There will be a four-day development sprint before the conference. Volunteers interested in helping to run PyCon should subscribe to the organizers mailing list at http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-organizers Don't miss any PyCon announcements! Subscribe at http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-announce You can discuss PyCon with other interested people by subscribing at http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-interest The central resource for PyCon DC 2004 is http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/ -- Aahz (aahz(a)pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/ "It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." --Bill Harlan

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Hi, and a question about filename completion via readline in Python 2.3
by Fernando Perez 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

Hi all, since this is my first post here, I figured I'd briefly introduce myself. I'm the lead developer of ipython (http://ipython.scipy.org), a shell for interactive python work. I've been a fan (and big advocate) of python over the last 2 years, mainly for scientific computing. For those interested, you can find a brief overview of ipython at: http://ipython.scipy.org/misc/ipython_scipy03.pdf Besides thanking the python team for this fantastic language, I have a question concerning some changes apparently made to the C part of readline support for python 2.3. If I understood correctly this thread: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-February/085063.html as of python 2.3, readline will NOT default anymore to providing filename completions when nothing matches in the available namespaces. There is mention in that thread of making it a configurable parameter, but I failed to find any specifics on how to do that. While perhaps I'm missing something, so far (after getting this reported as an ipython bug from 2.3 users) I've failed to be able to recover filename completion under 2.3. While I'm sure you found good reasons for this change, under some environments it turns out to be really quite nasty. One of the strengths of ipython is its tight integration with the underlying system environment, and its users rely constantly on filename/directory completion for navigating their filesystem as they work. I personally (and many others) use ipython as my main python shell, and I fell it provides a superior working environment to anything else I've seen out there (especially if you need to combine python work with manipulating underlying files). So ultimately my concerns are: - is there currently a way to re-enable readline filename completion, as suggested in that thread? - if not, can such a change be made? I hope if some of you test ipython, you'll find out that actually that kind of integration with the filesystem can make a very strong argument for python-based shells as fantastic tools for many data-driven environments. I have already knowledge of several projects which are either using or considering ipython as the underlying shell for scientific data analysis environments, and this change will be a major setback for their usability. Again, many thanks for all your hard work on python. Best regards, Fernando.

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PEP draft - Guidelines to processing patches
by Michael Bartl 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

Hi all! I've written a draft for a PEP - Guidlines for processing patches. Please have a look at it and give me some feedback. Private mail is prefered so not to spam the list ;) Please note that credits for the current content go to Martin v. Löwis. regards, Michael Bartl

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2.3.1 - minor nit in HTML Help docs
by Moore, Paul 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

The HTML Help documentation in the Windows installer has "Release 2.4a0" in the footer for each page. I'm guessing that this is a fairly minor tweak that might need adding to the list of tasks for preparing a release... Paul

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a small data point
by Anthony Baxter 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

Of the people who bothered to email or otherwise contact me about 2.3.1, the overwhelming response has been "thank you for not adding any new features". just a small data point for the features-vs-stability issue. Anthony

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Python in ATC (Air Traffic control)
by Michael Bartl 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Hi all together! Just to stop repeating myself I thought I'd post this to the python-dev list. In a foregoing post to the python-dev list I mentioned the use of python in the field of Air Traffic control. It seems that many people are interested in a description of where exactly python is used in this high-demanding field, may it be for marketing or personal reasons. I'm going to write a "python success story" about it, if my boss has no problem with that (which I assume). I can't give you any other information except to wait until the beginning of next week, when I will probably have finished the content :o) regards, Michael Bartl

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Announcement: ActiveState acquired by Sophos
by David Ascher 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

To the Python community -- As some of you have heard by now, ActiveState was acquired yesterday by Sophos Plc, a UK-based global anti-virus company, as described in this press release: http://www.activestate.com/Corporate/Communications/Releases/Press106436449… and in this open letter to ActiveState customers: http://www.activestate.com/corporate/letter/. I figure that many of you who know about ActiveState's background in the open source community probably have questions regarding what this means for ActiveState's future, and the future of Python at ActiveState. In short, there is no downside, only great opportunities. What will not change: - Our line of tools, language distributions and enterprise support for open source programming languages will continue to be developed and evolve with customer needs. - Our involvement in the open source language communities will continue as before. - All of the ActiveState staff is retained in the acquisition. - The Vancouver, BC office is poised to expand, not shrink. - Email addresses, phone numbers, etc. will continue to function as before. What will change: - ActiveState will now have a broader global impact and access to the resources of a larger company with a great deal of experience helping businesses secure their networks. - Our PureMessage anti-spam product will be integrated with the Sophos MailMonitor product and be sold as Sophos PureMessage, while the rest of our product line will still be sold under the ActiveState banner. - ActiveState is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sophos, with a focused mission to providing tools and services for users of open source programming languages. I want to point out to this audience in particular that the acquisition of ActiveState is a success story for open source programming technologies. It is in part thanks to our use of programming languages like Perl, Python and Tcl _and_ to our involvement in the programming communities around these languages that we've been able to quickly build and sell enterprise-grade software such as PureMessage, as well as very successful programming tools like Komodo, the Perl Dev Kit, etc. I'm glad to say that Sophos appreciates this and is looking to expand the use of these technologies in the larger company, not shrink it. Score one for the good guys! While I have to get back to work (on the usual things, like adding Python features to Komodo, help plan the next release of ActivePython, help plan for PyCon 2004, iron out legal issues for the PSF and a few other things like that), I'll be monitoring these lists, and welcome email questions as well -- send them to me at DavidA(a)ActiveState.com. Cheers, and see you all at PyCon 2004! -- David Ascher ActiveState, a division of Sophos

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Python Glossary
by Skip Montanaro 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Thanks to people who submitted content for the Python Glossary: http://manatee.mojam.com/python-glossary I just completed a first pass at folding it into the Python tutorial. It's now a separate appendix to that document. It will take awhile for the changes to show up on the website and in distributions, but if you have named CVS access to the Python distribution, you can get to it now. People with only anonymous CVS access or no CVS access at all will have to wait awhile for SourceForge to update the server. After a day or so it should be available here: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Doc/t… I would appreciate it if people could proofread it (if you're anxious to get to work, mail me and I'll send you a copy of the glossary.tex file). I made some changes to the definitions, but was focused more on getting the content into the tutorial than on wordsmithing. As a side-effect, the tutorial now also has an index. All but one or two of the entries it contains are from the glossary. The entire tutorial needs to be "indexified". If you would like to help with that, please feel free. In any case, any changes should be submitted as a documentation bug or patch (if you have some proposed context diffs) and assigned to me (SF username: montanaro). Please don't feel shy about adding new entries to the existing Wiki-based glossary either. I will notice updates and migrate new or corrected terms over as I have time. I don't plan to dismantle it, at least not for the forseeable future. At some point I may migrate it to the Python.org Wiki though. Skip

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