[Python-Dev] python-dev from 2003-02-16 through 2003-02-28

Brett Cannon drifty@alum.berkeley.edu
Sat, 1 Mar 2003 18:25:28 -0800 (PST) 

Since this is falling on the weekends, you guys have until Monday night to
tell me how I fouled up.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
python-dev Summary for 2003-02-16 through 2003-02-28
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

.. _comp.lang.python:
.. _rest:
.. _last summary:

======================
Summary Announcements
======================

Nothing specific about the Summary to mention.  I am starting to lean more
and more towards starting summaries out in Quickies_ and then making them
a full-fledged summary when they end up requiring more than a short
paragraph of explanation.  Helps me keep my sanity since I plan on
sticking with having some summarization for every thread on python-dev.

But this summary is on the lean side because traffic was lower than
normal.  I am sure this is in reaction to what happened last month with
the massive amount of emails and various negativity that sprung up around
the list.  Made my life easier.  =)

PyCon_ is moving forward!  Early-bird registration is over, but regular
registration for $200 is still available.  It has already shaped up to be
a fun conference.  If you come you can hear me make a fool of myself
trying to teach the conference reST_.  =)

T-shirts are also available so even if you don't go to the conference you
can buy a shirt at http://www.cafeshops.com/pycon and fool people into
thinking your went.  =)

As for the `pre-PyCon sprint`_, that is also shaping up.  There is already
a sprint for Zope_, Twisted_, and Webware_.  And now there is a sprint in
the works for working on the Python core!  If you are interested just
<XXX: waiting for Guido to tell me how he wants to be contacted>.

.. _PyCon: http://www.python.org/pycon/
.. _pre-PyCon sprint: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/SprintPlan
.. _Zope: http://www.zope.org/
.. _Twisted: http://twistedmatrix.com/
.. _Webware: http://webware.sourceforge.net/


===========================
`RELEASED: Python 2.3a2`__
===========================
__ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033537.html

Guido released `Python 2.3a2`_ on Feb. 19.  Please download it, run the
regression tests, and then test some of your own code.  The more bugs we
can squash before we hit 2.3b1 the better.

.. _Python 2.3a2: http://www.python.org/2.3/


===================================
`new format codes for getargs.c`__
===================================
__ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033579.html

Thomas Heller implemented a new 'k' format code for `getargs.c`_ that
ccepts integers or longs, does no range checking, and returns the lower
bits in an unsigned long".  After Tim Peters said that tests should be
added to `_testcapimodule.c`_ the conversation was moved over to
http://www.python.org/sf/595026 .

.. _getargs.c:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Python/getargs.c
.. __testcapimodule.c:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Modules/_testcapimodule.c


=====================================
`assymetry in descriptor behavior`__
=====================================
__ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033583.html

This summary is going to assume you understand descriptor's.  If you don't
read `What's New in 2.2`_ for a nice, simple overview or `PEP 252`_ for
the technical explanation (the initial email for this thread has simple
code showing how descriptor's are used).  If you have ever been interested
how property(), classmethod(), and staticmethod() work this will tell you.

David Abrahams wondered why it was possible to invoke a descriptor's
__get__() from either the class it is defined in or an instance of that
class while __set__() for the same descriptor cannot be called from the
class directly without having defined the descriptor a second time in the
metaclass; David thought this was a little difficult.  He also asked about
the arguments to the descriptor API methods.

Guido responded by saying that it wasn't difficult considering you could
do it and that Python was pulling something off with a single notation (by
using '.' for class and instance accesses) that C++ uses two notations for
('.' and '::').  As for the arguments to the various methods, they are as
follows:

__get__(self, obj, type)
    'self' gets bound to the descriptor instance.  When called for an
class, obj = None while for an instance it is bound to the instance
containing the descriptor.  'type' is set to the class that has the
descriptor regardless of what context the descriptor is being called.  The
duality is so that descriptors can be happy being called either just on an
instance or just a class (such as classmethod()).

__set__(self, obj, value)
    'self' is the descriptor, obj is the instance, and 'value' is what
what the assignment is being passed.  As mentioned above, this only works
with classes if you create the descriptor *twice*; once in the class and
once in the class's metaclass.

__delete__(self, obj)
    Guess what gets bound to these parameters?  =)  A historical note:
Guido said "In an early alpha release it was actually __del__, but that
didn't work very well. :-)" for obvious reasons.

David also submitted a doc patch for this so we are now one step closer to
having new-style classes documented.  Still, there is work to be done and
if you care to help please do so.

.. _What's New in 2.2:
http://www.python.org/doc/2.2.1/whatsnew/sect-rellinks.html#SECTION000320000000000000000
.. _PEP 252: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0252.html


======================
`Bytecode analysis`__
======================
__ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033663.html

Splinter threads:
    - `Bytecode idea
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033693.html>`__
    - `Code Generation Idea
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033692.html>`__
    - `Dynamic bytecode analysis
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033752.html>`__
    - `new bytecode results
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033775.html>`__

Damien Morton posted some opcode statistics and tried to get better
performance out of `ceval.c`_ by coming up with a way to do a LOAD_FAST_n
call (LOAD_FAST pushes a variable on to the stack) and to cut back on the
size of .pyc files.  Nothing panned out very much, though (all the
benchmarking was done using Pystone_).

Guido said that Christian Tismer's idea of changing some of the
rarely-used opcodes to function calls and moving them out of the 'switch'
statement might get some performance.

Christian also thought that some work could be done to speed up calls that
involve a ``goto fast_next_opcode`` call.

Changing ceval.c to using a jump table instead of a switch also did not
pan out.

Jeremy Hylton spoke to let people know that sometimes having an opcode
call out to a function is not necessarily slower then having the code in
the switch statement.  He said it depended on how much work the opcode had
to do and "lots of other hard-to-predict effects" in terms of memory and
generated machine code.

Jeremey also reminded people that there is patch out there to use the
Pentium's cycle counter to find out how many cycles is spent on each pass
through the mainloop.

Guido also said that "If you really want fame and fortune, try designing a
more representative benchmark".  AM Kuchling requested to be notified when
someone decided to take on this project.

Skip Montanaro pointed out that he has "an XML-RPC server available to
which applications can connect and upload their dynamic opcode
frequencies" at http://manatee.mojam.com:7304 .  Compile with
"DYNAMIC_EXCUTION_PROFILE and DXPAIRS defined" and fetch the info from the
sys_ module (it's undocumented, but it looks like you can get execution
info from sys.getdxp()).  If you are interested in how to use Skip's
server, see
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033767.html .

Damien Morton made his modified source code available at
http://www.bitfurnace.com/python/modified-source.zip and asked people give
it a try and report back to him their results.

Dan Sugalski suggested putting opcode that tends to execute in pairs
closer together so that they would have a better chance of being in the
cache.  It seemed that doing any mass opcode adding made things slower
since the switch got larger and thus made cache hits harder to come by.
Various ideas of how to rearrange things so that the switch was not as
large were suggested and are most likely still being tested.

.. _ceval.c:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Python/ceval.c
.. _Pystone:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Lib/test/pystone.py
.. _sys:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Python/sysmodule.c


=========
Quickies
=========

`CALL_ATTR, A Method Proposal
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033410.html>`__
    Finn Bock added one last comment to this thread from the `last
summary`_ about how the proposed implementation of a CALL_ATTR bytecode
was how Jython_ handled attribute calls.

`[Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Misc NEWS,1.660,1.661
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033466.html>`__:
`Package Install Manager for Python
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033467.html>`__
   We learn some people take offense to the word pimp (to the point of
considering them rapists), while others think it is fine ("a pretty
respectable profession [in Amsterdam].  Definitely higher standing than a
cab driver, somewhat on par with a coffeeshop owner").

`incorrect regression tests
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033469.html>`__
    Neal Norwitz discovered some regresssion tests that weren't being
executed.  We also learn that it is best for regression test modules to
define a test_main() function that executes all the tests then having the
tests run as a side-effect of importation (prevents the import lock from
being held).

`non-binary operators
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033470.html>`__
    Hold-over from the `last summary`_ when discussing whether the ternary
operator could be just chained binary operators.

`Import lock knowledge required!
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033436.html>`__
    Another hold-over from the `last summary`_; Eric Jones says he
wouldn't mind more fine-grained import locking.

`various unix platform build/test issues
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033482.html>`__
    Neal Norwitz brought to the attention of python-dev some issues that
were preventing Python from compiling on some platforms.

`308: the debate is petering out
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033484.html>`__
    Samuele Pedroni posted some new stats on the `PEP 308`_ debate going
on at `comp.lang.python`_.

`[rfc] map enhancement
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033486.html>`__
    Ludovic Aubry proposed a change to map(), but his use-case was
eliminated quickly when it was pointed out he could just rewrite his map()
or use list comprehensions.

`Python 2.3a2 release today?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033489.html>`__
    Guido asked if anyone objected to releasing Python 2.3a2 on Feb. 18.
Jack Jansen asked if Guido could wait a day and he said yes.

`test_timeout fails on Win98SE
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033515.html>`__
    The title of the thread states what the issue was and it got resolved.

`privacy in log files?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033530.html>`__
    Guido discovered a comment about not using `PyErr_WarnExplicit()`_
because there was a worry of having code put into a log file.  Discussion
seemed to end on the idea that it wasn't so much security but throwing a
text editor for a loop because of possible non-ASCII getting put into a
log file.

`What happened to fixed point?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033539.html>`__
    David LeBlanc asked about the status of FixedPoint_ getting into the
stdlib.  Raymond Hettinger said he would be getting to it soon.

`test_posix, test_random failing
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033541.html>`__
    I bet you can figure out what this thread is about.  SF tracker items
have now been created.

`pickling of large arrays
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033543.html>`__
    Ralf Grosse-Kunstle asked if there was a way to minimize the amount of
buffering needed to buffer an array object.  It was pointed out that
writing a __reduce__() method that used an iterator would prevent the need
to do any major buffering.  The idea of having a custom append() method
for objects to return was also suggested, but didn't get resolved.

`Cygwin build failing
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033555.html>`__
    A problem with builing under Cygwin was fixed by rebasing the system.

`2.3a2 problem: iconv module raising RuntimeError
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033570.html>`__
    `_iconv_codec.c`_ was raising RuntimeError when it was more proper to
raise ImportError.  It's been fixed.

`SCO Open Server 5.0.x thread support
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033575.html>`__
    Someone asked for help compiling on SCO with thread support.  He was
redirected to `comp.lang.python`_ to get help.

`call for Windows developers
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033582.html>`__
    Thomas Heller asked for help from some Windows experts with the goal
of getting ctypes_ so that one can write ActiveX controls in Python.

`tuning up...
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033585.html>`__
    Andrew MacIntyre sent some performance numbers for OS/2 EMX; about 10%
performance improvement from Python 2.2 with -O compared to stock Python
2.3 (-O in 2.3 does not do much since the SET_LINENO opcode was removed
entirely from Python).

`Weekly Python Bug/Patch Summary
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033586.html>`__
    Skip Montanaro's weekly reminder that Python is not perfect yet.  =)

`Needed: regexp maintainer
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033590.html>`__
    Guido asked for someone to step forward to take over for the re_
module.

`_iconv_codec
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033602.html>`__
    Guido asking what that `_iconv_codec.c`_ module was for (answer: it's
a wrapper for the iconv(3) POSIX module).

`python/dist/src configure,1.279.6.17...
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033596.html>`__
    Neil Schemenauer asked what the whitespace rules were for
pre-processor directives (e.g., #include, #define, etc.).  Tim Peters (the
residential C standards know-it-all) said that "Spaces and horizontal tabs
are fine before '#', and between '#' and the directive name".

`rename bsddbmodule.c to bsddb185.c
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033645.html>`__
    `bsddbmodule.c`_ is now going to compile to the module bsddb185.

`Scheduled downtime for mail.python.org
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033651.html>`__
    mail.python.org was scheduled to go down on 2003-02-26 at 10:00 EST.

`Traceback problem
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033607.html>`__
    Christian Tismer wanted a way to clear the traceback information
stored by `sys.exc_info()`_ to be cleared on-demand since it is kept
around as long as the frame is alive.  Kevin Jacobs wrote a patch to
implement this feature and named is sys.exc_clear().  And a word of
warning to anyone who stores the info returned by sys.exc_info(); it
creates a cycle with the frame and thus can create a huge chunk of memory
to be held so make sure to delete the info when you are done with it.

`module extension search order - can it be changed?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033626.html>`__
    Skip Montanaro realized that most failed stat() calls occur because
the extension search order goes C extension and then Python module; most
modules are written in Python and thus the stat() call for a C extension
of a module name tends to fail.  Guido said it is this way so that if the
build of a C extension fails a same-named Python module can be installed
instead.  This also lead to Skip possibly coming up with a build option of
creating a zip archive of the stdlib at install time to minimize failed
stat() calls.

`Writing a mutable object problem with __setattr__
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033627.html>`__
    Aleksandor Totic asked about classes and an object-persistence setup
he was designing.  You can learn about __setattr__() and that do find out
whether an instance is new-style or classic based on whether it has a
__class__ attribute (new-style has this).

`Re: some preliminary timings
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033634.html>`__
    Skip Montanaro discovering that importing email_ takes a while.

`GIL Pep commentary
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033657.html>`__
    David Abrahams basically saying he likes `PEP 311`_.

`test_re failing again on Mac OS X
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033668.html>`__
    Someone thought `test_re`_ was failing again on OS X when it turns out
it was an isolated incident.

`Slowdown in Python CVS
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033756.html>`__
    Someone thought that Python had slowed down for some reason; turned
out to be isolated.  If you ever need to check out a CVS copy from a past
date, execute ``cvs update -D '24 Feb 2003'`` (with the proper date, of
course).

`Some questions about maintenance of the regular expression code.
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033699.html>`__:
`New regex syntax?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033735.html>`__
    Gary Herron stepped up to say he was interested in taking over
maintenance of the re_ module.  He asked, though, how to handle bug
reports about ``(.*)?`` and hitting the recursion limit (a patch
materialized that solved the recursion issue for non-greedy quantifiers
for the common case).  The suggestion of coming up with a new syntax for
regexes came up but was stopped from forming on the list since that would
take "over all available bandwidth in python-dev" as Guido pointed out.
Can still be discussed in other forums, though...

`bug? classes whose metclass has __del__ are not collectible
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033764.html>`__
    Answer: no.  Reason: "The GC implementation has a good reason for
this; someone else may be able to explain it".

`Introducing Python
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033783.html>`__
    Gustavo Niemeyer sent a link to an mpeg promoting Python at
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/pyBiblio/pythonvideo.php .  If you ever had any
desire to see what some of the guys from PythonLabs look and sound like
and you are not going to PyCon_ you can now quench your curiosity.

`syntax for funcion attributes
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-February/033800.html>`__
    Someone suggested a new syntax for being to access function attributes
but was told that it didn't look like it would fly.


.. _Jython: http://www.jython.org/
.. _PEP 308: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0308.html
.. _PyErr_WarnExplicit():
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/api/exceptionHandling.html#l2h-92
.. _FixedPoint: http://fixedpoint.sf.net/
.. __iconv_codec.c:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Modules/_iconv_codec.c?sortby=date
.. _ctypes: http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes.html
.. _re: http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/lib/module-re.html
.. _bsddbmodule.c:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Modules/bsddbmodule.c
.. _sys.exc_info():
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/lib/module-sys.html
.. _email: http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/lib/module-email.html
.. _PEP 311: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0311.html
.. _test_re:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/dist/src/Lib/test/test_re.py