Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (May 22)

[Peter Otten]

QOTW: "It's hard to make a mistake by having too many short and simple 
functions. And much too easy to make them when you have too few ;-)" 
- Thomas Bartkus

"Argh, the following is valid Python syntax: assert a is not b - XXX
in-progress" 
- Armin Rigo (found on Michael Hudson's blog)


    A GREAT Python event is taking place right now:
	http://wiki.python.org/moin/NeedForSpeed/

    Python does not encourage one-liners, but when they work they are often 
    beautiful and efficient, like this one for counting distinct lines in a
    file.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/332003a1a24205d3
    
    Starting with Python 2.4 you may have to explicitly mask away the bits
    that used to fall off the edge of the world in previous versions.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/54b60719b4b1f960/0c5f1afebf8ec0c3?tvc=1
    
    Paul Cannon is working on Noodle, a lisp flavour targeting Python bytecode.
        http://noodler.blogspot.com/2006/05/release.html
    
    Modules lack a __getattr__ method. However, that is not a limitation in 
    practice:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/68e0c33b843a8a64
    
    Mike Foord and John J. Lee have teamed to improve the "Missing urllib2
    Manual" slated to become an official Howto.
        http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/weblog/arch_d7_2006_05_20.shtml#e335
    
    When Python balks at printing non-ascii characters to stdout, the shell
    is likely to be the culprit, as Serge Orlov and others work out.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/7a5ce0d2f48ac9ec/74b0c561f3e87288?tvc=1
    
    Dave Kuhlman has updated his FAQ concerning XML handling with Python.
        http://www.rexx.com/~dkuhlman/pyxmlfaq.html
    
    Among the folks Bruce Eckel has interviewed are Guido van Rossum
    and Jim Fulton.
	http://www.mindviewinc.com/mediacast/interviews/Index.php

    Still undecided whether you need "wxPython in Action", the new book
    written by Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn (the latter also the main developer
    of the wxPython GUI framework)? Get a feel for what to expect from this
    excerpt:
        http://www.pythonthreads.com/articles/python/incorporating-into-wxpython-part-1.html
    
    If you want to access only part of a pickle file cPickle has a
    fast-forward that avoids loading stuff you are not interested in.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/d55b2e987563422a
    
    
========================================================================
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

    Python411 indexes "podcasts ... to help people learn Python ..."
    Updates appear more-than-weekly:
        http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.html

    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://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0042/

    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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