[Python-Dev] Py2.3 Todo List

[Raymond Hettinger]

Here is my todo list for Py2.3.
Feel free to comment on whether it is too late to pursue these
or whether I should continue to work on them for the second beta.

1) PEP 42 lists a request to add timeout settings to the higher level
    net libraries.   Should this still be done?  In Py2.3, sockets offers
    a setdefaulttimeout() function that provides an indirect way of
    meeting the same goal.

2) Jack Diedrich is working on two patches for itertools:
 
       itertools.window(iterable, n=2) --> (a0, a1), (a1, a2), (a2, a3), ...

       itertools.roundrobin(*iterables) which loops over the iterables 
       returning one element from each and then cycles back to the
       first until all of the iterables are exhausted:
           itertools.roundrobin('ab', 'cde') --> a, c, b, d, e

Both functions were discussed on comp.lang.python and have been
requested by multiple users.  Neither is easily implemented in terms
of the existing tools.  OTOH, the more tools you add, the harder it
is to comprehend the toolset as a whole.

3) difflib now has functions to create a context diff or unified diff.
A natural next step is to add a patch() function that applies the diff
and finishes the roundtrip.    It also helps fulfill the original reason for
adding the context/unified diffs which was to make it easier for
general python users to either create or apply patches.

4) I've had a long outstanding patch to add methods like isalpha() to
string objects.  The goal was to make sure that replacements exist
for all the tools in the string module.  The hold-up has been in
making UniCode equivalents.  If this is still wanted, I'll finish it up.


Raymond Hettinger