python-dev Summary for 2004-12-16 through 2004-12-31

[Brett C.]

This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from December 
16, 2004 through December 31, 2004.  It is intended to inform the wider Python 
community of on-going developments on the list.  To comment on anything 
mentioned here, just post to `comp.lang.python`_ (or email 
python-list at python.org which is a gateway to the newsgroup) with a subject line 
mentioning what you are discussing. All python-dev members are interested in 
seeing ideas discussed by the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on 
something.  And if all of this really interests you then get involved and join 
`python-dev`_!

This is the fifty-fifth summary written by Brett Cannon (I have been doing this
for too long...).

To contact me, please send email to brett at python.org ; I do not have the 
time to keep up on comp.lang.python and thus do not always catch follow-ups 
posted there.

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

Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_ which can be 
found at http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html .  Any unfamiliar punctuation is 
probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably regular expression syntax 
or a typo =); you can safely ignore it, although I suggest learning reST; it's 
simple and is accepted for `PEP markup`_ and gives some perks for the HTML 
output.  Also, because of the wonders of programs that like to reformat text, I 
cannot guarantee you will be able to run the text version of this summary 
through Docutils_ 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 at
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking up any
documentation on new code; otherwise use the current documentation as found at
http://docs.python.org/ .  PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) are located at 
http://www.python.org/peps/ .  To view files in the Python CVS online, go to 
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ .  Reported bugs and 
suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge_ project page.

The `Python Software Foundation`_ is the non-profit organization that holds the 
intellectual property for Python.  It also tries to forward the development and 
use of Python.  But the PSF_ cannot do this without donations.  You can make a 
donation at http://python.org/psf/donations.html .  Every penny helps so even a 
small donation (you can donate through PayPal or by check) helps.

.. _python-dev: http://www.python.org/dev/
.. _SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470
.. _python-dev mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
.. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=comp.lang.python
.. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/
.. _reST:
.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html
.. _PSF:
.. _Python Software Foundation: http://python.org/psf/

.. contents::

.. _last summary: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2004-12-01_2004-12-15.html
.. _original text file: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2004-12-16_2004-12-31.ht



=====================
Summary Announcements
=====================
You can still `register <http://www.python.org/pycon/2005/register.html>`__ for 
`PyCon`_.  The `schedule of talks`_ is now online.  Jim Hugunin is lined up to 
be the keynote speaker on the first day with Guido being the keynote on 
Thursday.  Once again PyCon looks like it is going to be great.

On a different note, as I am sure you are all aware I am still about a month 
behind in summaries.  School this quarter for me has just turned out hectic.  I 
think it is lack of motivation thanks to having finished my 14 doctoral 
applications just a little over a week ago (and no, that number is not a typo). 
  I am going to for the first time in my life come up with a very regimented 
study schedule that will hopefully allow me to fit in weekly Python time so as 
to allow me to catch up on summaries.

And this summary is not short because I wanted to finish it.  2.4 was released 
just before the time this summary covers so most stuff was on bug fixes 
discovered after the release.

.. _PyCon: http://www.pycon.org/
.. _schedule of talks: http://www.python.org/pycon/2005/schedule.html


=======
Summary
=======
-------------
PEP movements
-------------
I introduced a `proto-PEP 
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/050753.html>`__ to 
the list on how one can go about changing CPython's bytecode.  It will need 
rewriting once the AST branch is merged into HEAD on CVS.  Plus I need to get a 
PEP number assigned to me.  =)

Contributing threads:
   - `proto-pep: How to change Python's bytecode 
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-December/050542.html>`__

------------------------------------
Handling versioning within a package
------------------------------------
The suggestion of extending import syntax to support explicit version 
importation came up.  The idea was to have something along the lines of 
``import foo version 2, 4`` so that one can have packages that contain 
different versions and to provide an easy way to specify which version was desired.

The idea didn't fly, though.  The main objection was that import-as support was 
all you really needed; ``import foo_2_4 as foo``.  And if you had a ton of 
references to a specific package and didn't want to burden yourself with 
explicit imports, one can always have a single place before code starts 
executing doing ``import foo_2_4; sys.modules["foo"] = foo_2_4``.  And that 
itself can even be lower by creating a foo.py file that does the above for you.

You can also look at how wxPython handles it at 
http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/MultiVersionInstalls .

Contributing threads:
   - `Re: [Pythonmac-SIG] The versioning question... 
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-December/050551.html>`__


===============
Skipped Threads
===============
- Problems compiling Python 2.3.3 on Solaris 10 with gcc 3.4.1
- 2.4 news reaches interesting places
      see `last summary`_ for coverage of this thread
- RE: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Modules posixmodule.c, 2.300.8.10, 
2.300.8.11
- mmap feature or bug?
- Re: [Python-checkins]	python/dist/src/Pythonmarshal.c, 1.79, 1.80
- Latex problem when trying to build documentation
- Patches: 1 for the price of 10.
- Python for Series 60 released
- Website documentation - link to descriptor information
- Build extensions for windows python 2.4 what are the compiler rules?
- Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src setup.py, 1.208, 1.209
- Zipfile needs?
     fake 32-bit unsigned int overflow with ``x = x & 0xFFFFFFFFL`` and signed 
ints with the additional ``if x & 0x80000000L: x -= 0x100000000L`` .
- Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Mac/OSX	fixapplepython23.py, 1.1, 1.2