Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jan 28)

[Gabriel Genellina]

QOTW:  "The nice thing with Pyrex is that you can use the Python
interpreter, or not use it, more or less depending on your way to declare
things and your way to code.  So, in a way, you have full control over
the compromise between speed and facility.  The temptation is always
strong to use Python facilities, but I guess that with enough discipline,
you can displace and put the equilibrium wherever you want." - Francois Pinard      
"If you don't ever need or have the chance to debug it, you probably aren't
doing programming." - Peter Hansen


    Early-bird registration for PyCon 2008 continues through 20 February:
        http://us.pycon.org/2008/registration/
    
    Proposal: auto-assignment to self of some constructor arguments:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/32b421bbe6caaeed/
    
    Looking for self-evaluating strings, such that eval(s)==s:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/11a74d45d713faef/
    
    Four small problems, with several answers and timings:
      Find the minimum value from those associated to keys in a dict:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/c852ac37c28311cb/
      
      Find the index of the maximum element in a list:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/d5ff990a1be73846/
    
      Same but minimum element instead:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/284094fd1ac25f69/
    
      Take pairs sequentially from a list:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/cf5ab4fab83f7988/
    
    Countdown game solver: combine a few numbers with +-*/()
    to obtain a given result. Several, very different solutions:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/64442b609d99a4ba/
    
    Another game: Sudoku, several approaches too, some incredibly short:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/99e43f326aaf93e5/
    
    A guy *really* trying to make sense of Python bytecode disassembled
    as if it were actual 80x86 code (still LOLAROTF!!!):
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/df14a32d10432940/
    
    
========================================================================
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.

    Just beginning with Python?  This page is a great place to start:
	http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers

    The Python Papers aims to publish "the efforts of Python enthusiats":
	http://pythonpapers.org/
    The Python Magazine is a technical monthly devoted to Python:
	http://pythonmagazine.com

    Readers have recommended the "Planet" sites:
	http://planetpython.org
	http://planet.python.org

    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 continues the marvelous tradition early borne by
    Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson, Brett Cannon, Tony Meyer, and Tim
    Lesher 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

    Many Python conferences around the world are in preparation.
    Watch this space for links to them.

    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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