Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Mar 27)

Mon Mar 27 20:20:47 CEST 2006

QOTW: "Testing real examples in doctstrings, or external documentation like
tutorials, is important because it's very frustrating for people reading
the docs if the examples don't work as advertised." - Marc Rintsch

"If you don't document what the sundry variables are FOR, you're really
not documenting your code at all -- just listing the names of some
attributes is far too weak." - Alex Martelli

    If unittest is the standard way to write testing code, why do we
    still have doctest? Because serious testers use both.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/b49d428f5c47f728/9f2348ceaf88d5a5?tvc=1

    Coincidentally, Terry Hancock dedicates a large portion of his
    report from PyCON 2006 to the power and simplicity of doctest.
        http://blog.freesoftwaremagazine.com/users/t.hancock/2006/03/18/title_3

    Do you have any recipes that you find indispensable in your daily
    work but that are not obvious to a beginner? Contribute them to
    Aahz' collection.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/8b752d91a7b83140/3dee683b0daa700b?tvc=1

    When using eval() is too dangerous you may still be able to
    facilitate Python's parsing infrastructure as Michael Spencer shows:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/789f2c8f7196e6e5/5c7a4f8438ec948c?tvc=1

    Want to squeeze your precious unicode data into ASCII strings?
    FLundh's solution builds on character decomposition and
    unicode.translate()'s ability to replace one character with many.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/77196f64a90ea9bc

    Andrew Dalke explores the performance implications of various
    approaches to class instantiation and has collected a few quotes
    on the __slots__ feature.
        http://www.dalkescientific.com/writings/diary/archive/2006/03/19/class_instantiation_performance.html

    Andrew Clover has derived nice Windows Icons from the new Python logo.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/0ad44c95e81b93cb

    The mythical Python 3000 is mythical no more as you can watch it
    evolve on its own mailing list. Rumour has it that there is also
    a branch in subversion, only slighly obfuscated by its name.
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-March/thread.html

========================================================================
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.*

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