python-dev Summary for 2003-08-16 through 2003-08-31

[Brett C.]

python-dev Summary for 2003-08-16 through 2003-08-31
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from=20
August 16, 2003 through August 31, 2003.  It is intended to inform the=20
wider Python community of on-going developments on the list.  To comment=20
on anything mentioned here, just post to python-list@python.org or=20
`comp.lang.python`_ with a subject line mentioning what you are=20
discussing. All python-dev members are interested in seeing ideas=20
discussed by the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on=20
something.  And if all of this really interests you then get involved=20
and join `python-dev`_!

This is the twenty-fourth summary written by Brett Cannon (a year's=20
worth of summaries by yours truly now under his belt; does this mean I=20
am certifiably insane?).

All summaries are archived at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .

Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_ which=20
can be found at http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html .  Any unfamiliar=20
punctuation is probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably=20
regular expression syntax or a typo =3D); you can safely ignore it,=20
although I suggest learning reST; its simple and is accepted for `PEP=20
markup`_ and gives some perks for the HTML output.  Also, because of the=20
wonders of programs that like to reformat text, I cannot guarantee you=20
will be able to run the text version of this summary through Docutils_=20
as-is unless it is from the original text file.

.. _PEP Markup: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0012.html

The in-development version of the documentation for Python can be found=20
at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking=20
up any documentation on something mentioned here.  Python PEPs (Python=20
Enhancement Proposals) are located at http://www.python.org/peps/ .  To=20
view files in the Python CVS online, go to=20
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ .  Reported bugs=20
and suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge_ project page.

.. _python-dev: http://www.python.org/dev/
.. _SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=3D5470
.. _python-dev mailing list:=20
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
.. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=3Dcomp.lang.pytho=
n
.. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/
.. _reST:
.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html

.. contents::

.. _last summary:=20
http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2003-08-01_2003-08-15.html


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Summary Announcements
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This is the twenty-fourth summary written by me.  This is significant=20
because this means I have written enough summaries to cover a year's=20
worth of email traffic on python-dev (had I not taken a summary off back=20
in October this milestone would have been hit for the first half of=20
August which represented a physical year since I started doing the=20
summaries).  It has truly been worth the experience.

But how much of an experience has it been?  Well, for a long time now I=20
have been planning on writing some code to calculate how much email I=20
have read, who wrote most of that email, and what threads made up the=20
most.  With my move to San Luis Obispo finished I finally had a chance=20
to write said code in an imperfect manner (imperfect because of things=20
like names which are a pain because some people have their name set=20
differently at different computers; "Barry Warsaw" compared to "Barry A.=20
Warsaw"; threads are worse thanks to the changing of subject titles in=20
the middle of a thread) so as to give me some approximate numbers.

I have read 9469 emails that have passed through the python-dev mailing=20
list.  The top six emailers (out of approx. 433 unique emailers) have bee=
n:

* Brett Cannon (277 emails when you deal with me just using my last=20
initial; 2.9% of all emails)
* Barry Warsaw (305 emails when you also count his middle initial; 3.2%)
* Skip Montanaro (481 emails; 5.1%)
* Martin v. L=F6wis (627 emails, when calculated looking for all names=20
that had "Martin" and "wis" in them; 6.6%)
* Tim Peters (694 emails; 7.3%)
* Guido van Rossum (a whopping 1407 emails; 14.8%)

The average person posted 21.9 emails over the emails I covered.  But=20
only about 24 people had more than a single percentage (more than 94=20
emails) worth of emails accredited to them.  That means that about 5.5%=20
of the unique posters on python-dev accounted for 66.8% of all email=20
(and I have gotten to know a good amount of those 24).

As for threads (of which there were approx. 1252 unique threads, and I=20
mean approximately), the top five are:

* "type categories" (115 emails; 1.2% of all emails)
* "PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues"=20
(123 emails; 1.3%)
* "PEP-317" (125 emails: 1.3%)
* "python/dist/src/Python import.c,2.210,2.211" (146 emails; 1.5%)
* "Extended Function syntax" (263 emails; 2.8%)

What does this tell you and me?  First, I have an addiction to Python.=20
Second, PEPs really do get discussed.  And third, Python development is=20
alive and well.


OK, enough statistics.  As for this summary, it turned out rather light=20
thanks to a couple of things.  One is the shutdown of mail delivery by=20
mail.python.org during the SoBig virus' peak.  This not only cut back on=20
the number of emails, but also led to me deleting *a lot* of bogus email=20
on my other emails accounts.  My blanket deleting may have caught=20
legitimate emails so it is possible I accidently deleted some python-dev=20
stuff, although if I did it was minimal.  Another contributing factor to=20
the light summary is that a lot of regulars on python-dev were on=20
vacation.  This looks like it will happen again for the first half of=20
September so expect the next summary to be light as well.


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Summaries
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
Python using Parrot; new code interpreter or strange evolutionary=20
parternship?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
Pirate_ has now reached version 0.01 alpha.  It lacks classes and=20
imports but can run a decent amount of Python code.  At least there is=20
now a proof-of-concept that Python running on top of the Parrot_ VM is=20
possible.

.. _Pirate: http://pirate.tangentcode.com/
.. _Parrot: http://www.parrotcode.org/

Contributing threads:
   - `pirate 0.01 alpha!=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037684.html>`__


------------------------
Python 2.3.1 on its way?
------------------------
Raymond Hettinger suggesting pushing for a quick release of Python 2.3.1=20
so that the 2.3 branch could be established as a stable version.=20
Several bugs and performance enhancements have been committed to the 2.3=20
maintenance branch.  Anthony Baxter stepped forward as release czar with=20
Raymond Hettinger saying he would help and Barry Warsaw volunteering his=20
wisdom as a battle-hardened release czar.

This discussion also brought up the question of whether a .chm help file=20
for the Windows distribution would be worth using instead of including=20
the HTML distribution of the documentation as it stands now.  It was=20
agreed that it was a good thing to have since it allowed for better=20
searching.  Tim Peters also discovered the install went faster since it=20
would not have to copy a ton of individual HTML files.

Python 2.3.1 has a "verbal" release date of the third week of September;=20
there has not been a PEP to set the release schedule officially.

Help would be appreciated in dealing with bug and patch reports on=20
SourceForge.  Even if all you do is add a comment saying "this patch=20
looks fine" or "I can reproduce this bug" it can be a great help.

Contributing threads:
   - `Py2.3.1=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037687.html>`__
   - `HTMLHelp for Py2.3.1=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037866.html>`__
   - `Fixing Patches and Bugs for Py2.3.1=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037840.html>`__


----------------------------------------
Making looping generators more efficient
----------------------------------------
Would you like to see deeply nested generators be more efficient in=20
returning their values?  Clark Evans would and made such a request.  He=20
essentially wanted to have nested generator calls propogate their values=20
to the first non-generator call directly and thus bypass all of the=20
generator maintenance code.  There was no direct reaction to this.

Shane Holloway followed with the idea of having special syntax for when=20
you yield each value of an iterator.  The idea, once again, would be to=20
speed this common case in the interpreter by skipping some bookkeeping=20
overhead.  A few syntax versions were offered, but the idea was all the=20
same: special-case ``for item in iterable: yield item`` to something=20
like ``yield *iterable``.

Contributing threads:
   - `cooperative generators=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037708.html>`__
   - `Graph exploration with generators=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037738.html>`__


--------------------------------------------------
Use of the logging package in the standard library
--------------------------------------------------
Want to help out the development of Python?  Know how to use the logging=20
package?  Then python-dev wants you!  There are several modules in the=20
stdlib that have home-grown logging code that could (and probably=20
should) be using the logging package instead to simplify life.  Read the=20
email that started the contributing thread and see if you can't help out=20
by converting the module over to using the logging package today!

Contributing threads:
   - `Unification of logging in Python's Standard Library=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037743.html>`__


-----------------------
Some waxings on PEP 310
-----------------------
PEP 310 proposes the 'with' syntax that came up a while back that=20
sparked an immense discussion on python-dev.  The idea was to have a=20
more fool-proof way of having an enter and exit method be called before=20
executing some specified code.  The common example was acquiring a lock,=20
executing some code, and then releasing the lock all without having to=20
deal with an explicit try/finally statement.  Samuele Pedroni tried to=20
clarify how it should work exactly by requiring __exit__ instead of=20
making it optional (read the PEP to understand what this means).

Contributing threads:
   - `PEP 310(with-syntax): close synonym of __exit__=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037795.html>`__


------------------------------------------------
Proposed PEP for a 'close' method for generators
------------------------------------------------
Samuele Pedroni has written a pre-PEP on defining a way to have=20
generators grow a way to have a 'close' method that is called when their=20
execution is finished so as to handle resources correctly.  This is in=20
response to not being able to contain yield statements within=20
try/finally blocks.

Contributing threads:
   - `pre-PEP: Resource-Release Support for Generators=20
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-August/037803.html>`__


-----------------
email-sig created
-----------------
Barry Warsaw has created the `email-sig`_ to steer development of=20
version 3 of the email package in hopes of having it done for Python 2.4 .

.. _email-sig: http://www.python.org/sigs/email-sig/

Contributing threads:
   - `New SIG: email-sig <New SIG: email-sig>`__