python-dev summary, 2001-02-01 - 2001-02-15

[Michael Hudson]

It is with some trepidation that I post:

 This is a summary of traffic on the python-dev mailing list between
 Feb 1 and Feb 14 2001.  It is intended to inform the wider Python
 community of ongoing developments.  To comment, just post to
 python-list@python.org or comp.lang.python in the usual way. Give
 your posting a meaningful subject line, and if it's about a PEP,
 include the PEP number (e.g. Subject: PEP 201 - Lockstep iteration)
 All python-dev members are interested in seeing ideas discussed by
 the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on a PEP if you
 have an opinion.

 This is the first python-dev summary written by Michael Hudson.
 Previous summaries were written by Andrew Kuchling and can be found
 at:

   <http://www.amk.ca/python/dev/>

 New summaries will probably appear at:

  <http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/summaries/>

 When I get round to it.

  Posting distribution (with apologies to mbm)

  Number of articles in summary: 498

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    0 +-029-067-039-037-080-048-020-009-040-021-008-030-043-027
       Thu 01| Sat 03| Mon 05| Wed 07| Fri 09| Sun 11| Tue 13|
           Fri 02  Sun 04  Tue 06  Thu 08  Sat 10  Mon 12  Wed 14

 A fairly busy fortnight on python-dev, falling just short of five
 hundred articles.  Much of this is making ready for the Python 2.1
 release, but people's horizons are beginning to rise above the
 present.


   * Python 2.1a2 *
 
 Python 2.1a2 was released on Feb. 2.  One of the more controversial
 changes was the disallowing of "from module import *" at anything
 other than module level; this restriction was weakened after some
 slightly heated discussion on comp.lang.python.

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-February/012815.html>

 It is possible that non-module-level "from module import *" will
 produce some kind of warning in Python 2.1 but this code has not yet
 been written.


   * Performance *

 Almost two weeks ago, we were talking about performance.  Michael
 Hudson posted the results of an extended benchmarking session using
 Marc-Andre Lemburg's pybench suite:

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-January/012330.html>

 to which the conclusion was that python 2.1 will be marginally
 slower than python 2.0, but it's not worth shouting about.  The use
 of Vladimir Marangoz's obmalloc patch in some of the benchmarks
 sparked a discussion about whether this patch should be incorporated
 into Python 2.1.  There was support from many for adding it on an
 opt-in basis, since when nothing has happened...


   * Imports on case-insensitive file systems *

 There was quite some discussion about how to handle imports on a
 case-insensitive file system (eg. on Windows).  I didn't follow the
 details, but Tim Peters is on the case (sorry), so I'm confident it
 will get sorted out.


   * Sets & iterators *

 The Sets discussion rumbled on, moving into areas of syntax.  The
 syntax:

   for key:value in dict:

 was proposed.  Discussion went round and round for a while and moved
 on to more general iteration constructs, prompting Ka-Ping Yee to
 write a PEP entitled "iterators":

  <http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0234.html>

 Please comment!

 Greg Wilson announced that BOFs for both sets and iterators have
 been arranged at the python9 conference in March:

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-February/012824.html>


   * Stackless Python in Korea *

 Christian Tismer gave a presentation on stackless python to over 700
 Korean pythonistas:

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-February/012601.html>

 I think almost everyone was amazed and delighted to find that Python
 has such a fan base.  Next stop, the world!

   * string methodizing the standard library *

 Eric Raymond clearly got bored one evening and marched through the
 standard library, converting almost all uses of the string module to
 use to equivalent string method.  


   * Python's release schedule *

 Skip Montanaro raised some concerns about Python's accelerated
 release schedule, and it was pointed out that the default Python for
 both debian unstable and Redhat 7.1 beta was still 1.5.2.  Have
 *you* upgraded to Python 2.0?  If not, why not?


   * Unit testing (again) *

 The question of replacing Python's hoary old regrtest-driven test
 suite with something more modern came up again.  Andrew Kuchling
 enquired whether the issue was to be decided by voting or BDFL fiat:

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-February/012830.html>

 Guido obliged:

  <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-February/012831.html>

 There was then some discussion of what changes people would like to
 see made in the standard-Python-unit-testing-framework-elect
 (PyUnit) before they would be happy with it.

Cheers,
M.