Mailman 3 July 2005 - Python-Dev

should doc string content == documentation content?
by skip＠pobox.com July 25, 2005

July 25, 2005

There's a new bug report on SF (#1243553) complaining (that's probably not the right word) that the documentation for cgi.escape available from pydoc isn't as detailed as that in the full documentation. Is there any desire to make the runtime documentation available via pydoc or help() as detailed as the full documentation? I'm inclined to think that while it might be a noble goal, it's probably not worth the effort for several reasons. 1. Many objects don't lend themselves to inline documentation. This includes all the basic data types (strings, numbers, lists, tuples, dicts). It could be achieved perhaps by some sort of hackery (e.g., for object foo present the contents of _foo__doc__ if it was a string or unicode object), but that would only be a convention. 2. There's so much more to the documentation than documenting individual objects. 3. When asking pydoc (or help()) to present a module's documentation, it displays a URL for the full module documentation. 4. It would be a *ton* of work. While I can fix the isolated case of cgi.escape fairly easily, I'm not inclined to. (I will gladly do it if the sentiment is that picking off such low-hanging fruit is worthwhile.) What do other people think? Skip

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Information request; Keywords: compiler compiler, EBNF, python, ISO 14977
by Christine C Moran July 22, 2005

July 22, 2005

Apart from the SimpleParse module, are there other good parser generators out there for python in python that accept EBNF style grammars? Preferably ISO 14977 EBNF. -xstinex

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while:
by Martin Blais July 21, 2005

July 21, 2005

Hi Today I typed something funny in the interactive interpreter: >>> while: File "<stdin>", line 1 while: ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax it got me wondering, wouldn't it be nice if while: ... behaved as: while True: ... Since they appeared, I started using "while True:" instead of "while 1:" for this common idiom. I find it reveals the intention better, but I don't like the typing. Opinions? cheers,

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Weekly Python Patch/Bug Summary
by Kurt B. Kaiser July 21, 2005

July 21, 2005

Patch / Bug Summary ___________________ Patches : 350 open ( +1) / 2882 closed ( +2) / 3232 total ( +3) Bugs : 889 open ( -8) / 5141 closed (+22) / 6030 total (+14) RFE : 189 open ( -5) / 178 closed ( +8) / 367 total ( +3) New / Reopened Patches ______________________ Add unicode for sys.argv, os.environ, os.system (2005-07-02) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1231336 reopened by loewis Fix LINKCC (Bug #1189330) (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1239112 opened by Christoph Ludwig Prevent race condition in os.makedirs (2005-07-17) http://python.org/sf/1239890 opened by Nir Soffer release lock on exception in threading.Thread.join() (2005-07-18) http://python.org/sf/1240614 opened by Dirk Groeneveld Patches Closed ______________ Patch for potential buffer overrun in tokenizer.c (2005-01-13) http://python.org/sf/1101726 closed by doerwalter Add unicode for sys.argv, os.environ, os.system (2005-07-02) http://python.org/sf/1231336 closed by loewis Optimization for textwrap (2005-05-26) http://python.org/sf/1209527 closed by rhettinger New / Reopened Bugs ___________________ email.Generator traceback in forwarded msg (2005-07-12) http://python.org/sf/1236906 opened by Skip Montanaro Missing sk_SK in windows_locale (2005-07-13) http://python.org/sf/1237015 opened by Lukas Lalinsky link path probs on OSX re: Tcl, Tk & fink's /sw (2005-07-13) http://python.org/sf/1237697 opened by blakers threading.Thread uses {} as default argument (2005-07-14) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1238170 opened by Simon Dahlbacka manual.cls contains an invalid pdf-inquiry (2005-07-14) http://python.org/sf/1238210 opened by Michael Schindler freed pointer is used in longobject.c:long_pow() (2005-07-15) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1238681 opened by Luke subprocess.Popen fails inside a Windows service (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1238747 opened by Adam Kerrison Win registry problem (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1239120 opened by Bruce Sherwood Win registry problem (2005-07-15) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1239148 opened by Bruce Sherwood Install Error: "cannot compute sizeof (int), 77" (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1239186 opened by Bob Gazzale email.Utils.formatdate documetaion missing (2005-07-17) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1239681 opened by Nir Soffer distutils: MetroWerks support can go (2005-07-17) http://python.org/sf/1239948 opened by Jack Jansen Distutils does not use logging (2005-07-19) http://python.org/sf/1241006 opened by Giles Antonio Radford StreamReader broken for byte string to byte string codecs (2005-07-20) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1241507 opened by Graham Horler garbage collection asserts failing (2005-07-20) http://python.org/sf/1241545 opened by munder12 -m does not find dotted modules (2005-07-20) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1241619 opened by Giles Antonio Radford Bugs Closed ___________ debug info file descriptor of tarfile is inconsistent (2005-07-09) http://python.org/sf/1235266 closed by birkenfeld missing Py_DECREF in PyObject_CallMethod (2005-06-29) http://python.org/sf/1229429 closed by mwh Mistakes in online docs under "5.3 Pure Embedding" (2005-07-05) http://python.org/sf/1232768 closed by birkenfeld tkFileDialog.askopen... fails when dir="" (2005-07-07) http://python.org/sf/1233799 closed by birkenfeld Carbon.FSSpec.as_pathname() crashes (2005-07-11) http://python.org/sf/1236090 closed by jackjansen segfault/assert in tokenizer (2004-12-21) http://python.org/sf/1089395 closed by doerwalter threading.Thread uses {} as default argument (2005-07-14) http://python.org/sf/1238170 closed by birkenfeld some latex reject the pdfinfo macro while generating html (2004-11-22) http://python.org/sf/1071094 closed by birkenfeld freed pointer is used in longobject.c:long_pow() (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1238681 closed by tim_one Win registry problem (2005-07-15) http://python.org/sf/1239148 closed by bsherwood email.Utils.formatdate documetaion missing (2005-07-17) http://python.org/sf/1239681 closed by montanaro "k" specifier in PyArg_ParseTuple incomplete documentated (2004-11-07) http://python.org/sf/1061920 closed by birkenfeld "article id" in description of NNTP objects (2004-08-24) http://python.org/sf/1015140 closed by birkenfeld Missing urllib.urlretrieve docs (2004-08-24) http://python.org/sf/1014761 closed by birkenfeld refman doesn't know about universal newlines (2005-01-10) http://python.org/sf/1099363 closed by birkenfeld 7.5.6 Thread Objects is too vague (2004-03-09) http://python.org/sf/912943 closed by birkenfeld os.access() documentation should stress race conditions (2004-01-08) http://python.org/sf/872769 closed by birkenfeld use first_name, not first, in code samples (2004-09-03) http://python.org/sf/1021621 closed by birkenfeld make frameworkinstall fails for non-default location (2005-06-09) http://python.org/sf/1217591 closed by jackjansen SocketServer module documentation misleading (2004-05-20) http://python.org/sf/957505 closed by birkenfeld unclear documentation/missing command? (2003-11-27) http://python.org/sf/850238 closed by birkenfeld os module: Need a better description of "mode" (2003-06-17) http://python.org/sf/755617 closed by birkenfeld StreamReader broken for byte string to byte string codecs (2005-07-20) http://python.org/sf/1241507 closed by doerwalter New / Reopened RFE __________________ add a note to eval and exec to not use it when possible (2005-07-13) CLOSED http://python.org/sf/1237678 opened by Reinhold Birkenfeld add dedent() string method (2005-07-13) http://python.org/sf/1237680 opened by Reinhold Birkenfeld RFE Closed __________ add a note to eval and exec to not use it when possible (2005-07-13) http://python.org/sf/1237678 closed by rhettinger Links to tutorials and howtos from references (2005-07-04) http://python.org/sf/1232073 closed by rhettinger Add Jason Orendorff's path module to stdlib (2005-06-23) http://python.org/sf/1226256 closed by rhettinger Add Error Code Dictionary to urllib2 (2005-06-08) http://python.org/sf/1216944 closed by birkenfeld Floating point second in date/time tuple (2001-04-05) http://python.org/sf/414059 closed by birkenfeld pickle lacks float('inf') (2001-07-28) http://python.org/sf/445484 closed by birkenfeld Optional type enforcement (2003-07-28) http://python.org/sf/778763 closed by birkenfeld -m does not find dotted modules (2005-07-20) http://python.org/sf/1241619 closed by rhettinger

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builtin filter function
by Ruslan Spivak July 20, 2005

July 20, 2005

Hello. I was reading source code for bltinmodule.c and found probably erroneus stuff in filter function. I'm newbie to python inners and don't know if attached code is worth for a patch submission. I would appreciate if someone could take a look at it and if it's ok then i'll make submission, otherwise just drop it. TIA Ruslan

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read only files
by Pranav Bagora July 19, 2005

July 19, 2005

Hello, I am getting a permission denied error when i am trying to make changes in some read only files. How can we check and change the properties of a file in the program itself. Please help, Pranav Pranav Bagora Graduate Student SUNY Binghamton. ================ Add:- 261 Main Street Apt No. 11 Binghamton NY. ================ Phone:- 607 349 8788 email:- pbagora(a)binghamton.edu ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Re: [Python-Dev] Terminology for PEP 343
by Michael Chermside July 18, 2005

July 18, 2005

Raymond writes: > On a separate note, I also propose that __exit__() be renamed to > __leave__(). The enter/leave word pairing are a better fit in standard > English: I don't feel strongly about it, but I tend to disagree. Certainly you will admit that enter-exit IS a gramatically correct pairing in English. Raymond argues that: > Google has no shortage of hits for the pairing: Yes, but google has about half as many hits for the enter-exit pairing. I think a factor of 2 is not really that big for this sort of thing. I would take that to mean that enter-leave and enter-exit are roughly equally frequent pairs with enter-leave being somewhat more prevelant. > FWIW, there is precedent in x86 assembly language: > Likewise, GUI programmers use Enter and Leave for mouse events. These precedents stand. I don't find them compelling, but they are certainly valid. In favor of "exit" over "leave" I have only two arguments. First, I just like "exit" better. Hmm... didn't find that compelling? I was afraid of that. The second (also not a very strong argument) is that "exit" is somewhat more distinct in meaning than "leave". Somehow for me "exit" has a faint connotation of a distinct boundary being crossed, while "leave" is somewhat less crisp. I would use "She left the ballpark." for someone walking into the dugout, climbing up into the stands, or walking out of the stadium, and might refer to the entire process. Using "She exited the ballpark." to me suggests the exact moment that she went through the door dividing outside from inside. If you accept this connotation, then it's clear that "exit" is a closer match for the with statement's behavior than "leave". Anyway, this stuff is always very subjective and, as I said, I'm just expressing an opinion. So take it for what it's worth. -- Michael Chermside

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Some RFE for review
by Reinhold Birkenfeld July 17, 2005

July 17, 2005

Hi, while bugs and patches are sometimes tricky to close, RFE can be very easy to decide whether to implement in the first place. So what about working a bit on this front? Here are several RFE reviewed, perhaps some can be closed ("should" is always from submitter's point of view): 1193128: str.translate(None, delchars) should be allowed and only delete delchars from the string. Review: may be a good feature, although string._idmap can be passed as the first parameter too. 1226256: The "path" module by Jason Orendorff should be in the standard library. http://www.jorendorff.com/articles/python/path/ Review: the module is great and seems to have a large user base. On c.l.py there are frequent praises about it. 1216944: urllib(2) should gain a dict mapping HTTP status codes to the correspondig status/error text. Review: I can't see anything speaking against it. 1214675: warnings should get a removefilter() method. An alternative would be to fully document the "filters" attribute to allow direct tinkering with it. Review: As mwh said in a comment, this isn't Java, so the latter may be the way to go. 1205239: Shift operands should be allowed to be negative integers, so e.g. a << -2 is the same as a >> 2. Review: Allowing this would open a source of bugs previously well identifiable. 1152248: In order to read "records" separated by something other than newline, file objects should either support an additional parameter (the separator) to (x)readlines(), or gain an additional method which does this. Review: The former is a no-go, I think, because what is read won't be lines. The latter is further complicating the file interface, so I would follow the principle that not every 3-line function should be builtin. 1110010: A function "attrmap" should be introduced which is used as follows: attrmap(x)['att'] == getattr(x, 'att') The submitter mentions the use case of new-style classes without a __dict__ used at the right of %-style string interpolation. Review: I don't know whether this is worth it. 1052098: An environment variable should be supported to set the default encoding. Review: If one wants this for a single application, he can still implement it himself. 985094: getattr should support a callable as the second argument, used as follows: getattr(obj, func) == func(obj) Review: Highly unintuitive to me. That's all for today; sorry if it was too much ;) Reinhold -- Mail address is perfectly valid!

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Re: [Python-Dev] python/dist/src/Doc/lib emailutil.tex,1.11,1.12
by Reinhold Birkenfeld July 17, 2005

July 17, 2005

montanaro(a)users.sourceforge.net wrote: > Update of /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Doc/lib > In directory sc8-pr-cvs1.sourceforge.net:/tmp/cvs-serv20654 > > Modified Files: > emailutil.tex > Log Message: > Note that usegmt is new in 2.4. Closes #1239681. > > > Index: emailutil.tex > =================================================================== > RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Doc/lib/emailutil.tex,v > retrieving revision 1.11 > retrieving revision 1.12 > diff -u -d -r1.11 -r1.12 > --- emailutil.tex 1 Nov 2004 03:59:24 -0000 1.11 > +++ emailutil.tex 17 Jul 2005 11:47:46 -0000 1.12 > @@ -103,7 +103,8 @@ > Optional \var{usegmt} is a flag that when \code{True}, outputs a > date string with the timezone as an ascii string \code{GMT}, rather > than a numeric \code{-0000}. This is needed for some protocols (such > -as HTTP). This only applies when \var{localtime} is \code{False} > +as HTTP). This only applies when \var{localtime} is \code{False}. > +New in Python 2.4. > \end{funcdesc} > > \begin{funcdesc}{make_msgid}{\optional{idstring}} Wouldn't that be \versionadded{2.4}? Reinhold -- Mail address is perfectly valid!

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'With' context documentation draft (was Re: Terminology for PEP 343
by Jim Jewett July 16, 2005

July 16, 2005

Nick Coghlan asked Marc-Andre Lemburg: > There's clearly something that bothers you about this though, and I'd like to > understand what it is. Does the term 'context' carry additional, more > specific, connotations for you that I'm simply not taking into account? To me, a context is much larger than a single object. That said, I can't think of any better words. It *might* be worth noting that context managers don't have to control the entire context -- they will often affect only one small facet, and it is OK to nest them if you want to control more than that. -jJ

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