Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Mar 20)

[Peter Otten]

QOTW:  "Anything with 'Python' in its name can't market Python
well." - Iain Bicking

"Who really cares whether NASA uses Python? One thing I learned from
having to sit through too many software marketing presentations is
that organizations like NASA are to software what the Library of
Congress is to books." - Steven Lumos on comp.lang.ruby


    How would you compare two strings when you don't care about
    whitespace? Hint: no regular expressions needed.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/2ad8fae9cc32e333/b4dc3a17d7502391
    
    Jarek Zgoda's hack seems to be the most reliable way to get localized
    month names.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/7d8e318b9b27a460/8b8283877bc02aa1?tvc=1
    
    Python 2.5 is scheduled for August 19, 2006. Among the highlights are
    the with-statement simplifying reliable resource acquisition/release
    and Fredrik Lundh's ElementTree. When bugs due to clever workarounds
    made it into the standard library Guido finally gave in, so there will
    be an inline-if/else, too. Use with discretion :-)
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/f6f95174484c24cc

    Experienced developers wrestle with thorny deployment issues.
         http://blog.ianbicking.org/packaging-python.html
    
    Is coding a text adventure? Matt Webb and his co-developers think so.
    They use Python as the tried and tested tool to explore new ideas.
        http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70413-0.html?tw=wn_technology_4
    
    Iain Bicking shares his thoughts about the new python.org website and
    marketing Python.
        http://blog.ianbicking.org/python-marketing-2006.html
    
    You don't always need a big fat office suite to get your data out of
    an Excel spreadsheet. 
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/af8f5484123101ae/fd7fb0d4d894dce2?tvc=1
    
    Stackless Python has been ported to Python 2.4.2.
        http://www.stackless.com/Members/rmtew/pycon2006Result


========================================================================
Everything Python-related you want is probably one or two clicks away in
these pages:

    Python.org's Python Language Website is the traditional
    center of Pythonia
        http://www.python.org
    Notice especially the master FAQ
        http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html

    PythonWare complements the digest you're reading with the
    marvelous daily python url
         http://www.pythonware.com/daily  
    Mygale is a news-gathering webcrawler that specializes in (new)
    World-Wide Web articles related to Python.
         http://www.awaretek.com/nowak/mygale.html 
    While cosmetically similar, Mygale and the Daily Python-URL
    are utterly different in their technologies and generally in
    their results.

    For far, FAR more Python reading than any one mind should
    absorb, much of it quite interesting, several pages index
    much of the universe of Pybloggers.
	http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/PythonProgrammersWeblog
        http://www.planetpython.org/
        http://mechanicalcat.net/pyblagg.html

    comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software.  Be
    sure to scan this newsgroup weekly.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python.announce

    Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer continue the marvelous
    tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson and Brett
    Cannon of intelligently summarizing action on the python-dev mailing
    list once every other week.
	http://www.python.org/dev/summary/

    The Python Package Index catalogues packages.
        http://www.python.org/pypi/

    The somewhat older Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collects references
    to all sorts of Python resources.
        http://www.vex.net/~x/parnassus/   

    Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group
    mailing lists
        http://www.python.org/sigs/

    Python Success Stories--from air-traffic control to on-line
    match-making--can inspire you or decision-makers to whom you're
    subject with a vision of what the language makes practical.
        http://www.pythonology.com/success

    The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has replaced the Python
    Consortium as an independent nexus of activity.  It has official
    responsibility for Python's development and maintenance. 
        http://www.python.org/psf/
    Among the ways you can support PSF is with a donation.
        http://www.python.org/psf/donate.html

    Kurt B. Kaiser publishes a weekly report on faults and patches.
        http://www.google.com/groups?as_usubject=weekly%20python%20patch
       
    Although unmaintained since 2002, the Cetus collection of Python
    hyperlinks retains a few gems.
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html

    Python FAQTS
        http://python.faqts.com/

    The Cookbook is a collaborative effort to capture useful and
    interesting recipes.
	http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python

    Among several Python-oriented RSS/RDF feeds available are
	http://www.python.org/channews.rdf
	http://bootleg-rss.g-blog.net/pythonware_com_daily.pcgi
	http://python.de/backend.php
    For more, see
	http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=python&ShowStatus=all
    The old Python "To-Do List" now lives principally in a
    SourceForge reincarnation.
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse
        http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html
     
    The online Python Journal is posted at pythonjournal.cognizor.com.
    editor at pythonjournal.com and editor at pythonjournal.cognizor.com
    welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding
    of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work.

    del.icio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary.
    It already aggregates quite a bit of Python intelligence.
        http://del.icio.us/tag/python

    *Py: the Journal of the Python Language*
        http://www.pyzine.com

    Archive probing tricks of the trade:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python&num=100
        http://groups.google.com/groups?meta=site%3Dgroups%26group%3Dcomp.lang.python.*

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
  http://www.ddj.com/topic/python/ (requires subscription)
  http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=python-url+group:comp.lang.python*&start=0&scoring=d&
  http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html (dormant)
or
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python
There is *not* an RSS for "Python-URL!"--at least not yet.  Arguments
for and against are occasionally entertained.


Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
E-mail to <Python-URL at phaseit.net> should get through.

To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning
(approximately), ask <claird at phaseit.net> to subscribe.  Mention
"Python-URL!".


-- The Python-URL! Team--

Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.