[Python-Dev] python-dev Summary for 2003-10-01 through 2003-10-15
[draft]
Brett C.
bac at OCF.Berkeley.EDU
Sat Oct 18 23:38:21 EDT 2003
python-dev Summary for 2003-10-01 through 2003-10-15
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from
October 1, 2003 through October 15, 2003. It is intended to inform the
wider Python community of on-going developments on the list. To comment
on anything mentioned here, just post to `comp.lang.python`_ (or email
python-list at python.org which is a gateway to the newsgroup) with a
subject line mentioning what you are discussing. All python-dev members
are interested in seeing ideas discussed by the community, so don't
hesitate to take a stance on something. And if all of this really
interests you then get involved and join `python-dev`_!
This is the twenty-seventh summary written by Brett Cannon (about to
turn a quarter century old; so young yet so wise =).
All summaries are archived at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .
Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_ which
can be found at http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html . Any unfamiliar
punctuation is probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably
regular expression syntax or a typo =); you can safely ignore it,
although I suggest learning reST; it's simple and is accepted for `PEP
markup`_ and gives some perks for the HTML output. Also, because of the
wonders of programs that like to reformat text, I cannot guarantee you
will be able to run the text version of this summary through Docutils_
as-is unless it is from the original text file.
.. _PEP Markup: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0012.html
The in-development version of the documentation for Python can be found
at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking
up any documentation on something mentioned here. PEPs (Python
Enhancement Proposals) are located at http://www.python.org/peps/ . To
view files in the Python CVS online, go to
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ . Reported bugs
and suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge_ project page.
.. _python-dev: http://www.python.org/dev/
.. _SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470
.. _python-dev mailing list:
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
.. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=comp.lang.python
.. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/
.. _reST:
.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html
.. contents::
.. _last summary:
http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2003-09-01_2003-09-15.html
=====================
Summary Announcements
=====================
Python-dev had a major explosion in emails thanks to some proposed
changes to list.sort (summarized in `Decorate-sort-undecorate eye for
the list.sort guy`_). That got covered. Some behind-the-scenes stuff
that would not interest the general Python community was left out for my
personal sanity.
It looks like I will not have major issues continuing writing the
Summaries in terms of school interfering. The only big issue will be
how long past their closure date does it take me to get them out. In
other words, unless my schoolwork load suddenly becomes heavy
continuously I should be able to keep doing the Summaries until my
personal sanity gives out.
This summary is brought to you the song "Insanity_" by `Liz Phair`_ and
"`Harder to Breathe`_" by `Maroon 5`_.
.. _Insanity:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1760071&selectedItemId=1759480
.. _Liz Phair:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?artistId=22707
.. _Harder to Breathe:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1798612&selectedItemId=1798604
.. _Maroon 5:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?artistId=1798556
=========
Summaries
=========
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I gave a talk at PyCon 2004 and all I got was respect and admiration
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I summarized this last month, but this is important so I am doing it
again (and will continue to mention it until no more proposals are being
accepted). PyCon_
is ramping up for 2004 and is putting out a `Call for Proposals`_.
Since PyCon is meant to be very broad-reaching you can propose anything
from a scientific paper to a tutorial.
If you have any inkling to give a talk please send in a proposal. It
can't be rough, the key is that what you want to discuss can be
understood from the proposal. So take a look at the link and consider
coming to PyCon as a speaker and not just a attendee.
.. _PyCon: http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/
.. _Call for Proposals: http://www.python.org/pycon/dc2004/cfp.html
Contributing threads:
`PyCon DC 2004: Call for Proposals
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038502.html>`__
---------------
Web-SIG started
---------------
As stated on the SIGs page, "The Python `Web SIG`_ is dedicated to
improving Python's support for interacting with World Wide Web services
and clients." If there is some web-related functionality that you think
Python should, this is the place to discuss it. If you think an
existing Python module could stand a redesign then this is the proper
forum for your ideas.
.. _Web SIG: http://www.python.org/sigs/web-sig/
Contributing threads:
`Any movement on a SIG for web lib enchancements?
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038519.html>`__
--------------------------------------------
I have seen the future and it includes 2.3.3
--------------------------------------------
Anthony Baxter, release manager for Python `2.3.1`_ and `2.3.2`_, is
already planning a 2.3.3 release in about three months time. He
initially suggested that the goal of this release should be to have
Python build on as many platforms as possible.
Michael Hudson listed "HPUX/ia64, various oddities on Irix" as the major
troublemakers. He suggested that a sustained push to fix these build
problems happen instead of trying to do it last-minute. Michael also
thought it would be a good idea to try to find experts on the trouble
platforms instead of having someone getting access to some machine and
floundering since they don't know the OS.
Skip Montanaro quickly chimed in with
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/PythonTesters which is a wiki
page that lists people who are available to help with testing on various
OSs. Please have a look and if you think you could help out on an OS
add yourself.
.. _2.3.1: http://www.python.org/2.3.1/
.. _2.3.2: http://www.python.org/2.3.2/
Contributing threads:
`2.3.3 plans
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038527.html>`__
-------------------
Helping you help us
-------------------
In response to Martin v. Löwis' email on how to handle patches, Michael
Bartl expressed his disappointment that nothing had happened to his
patches. It was explained to him that because of time restraints on
python-dev that it can take time for people to get to all of the
patches, but that his work was greatly appreciated and would eventually
be looked at.
The question of searching on SourceForge_ through the tracker items also
came up. There is a search box on the left side of the page, but it is
not extensive. Better than nothing.
I also posted an essay I wrote that is meant to act as a guide to how
Python is developed and how anyone can help with the development
regardless of abilities. You can look at the email below in the "Draft
of an essay on Python development" thread referenced below in
"Contributing threads". Hopefully it will end up on python.org once it
is in its final form.
Contributing threads:
`Patches & Bug help revisited
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038621.html>`__
`Draft of an essay on Python development (and how to help)
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038677.html>`__
--------------------------------------------
Making DLLs fatter for lower file dependency
--------------------------------------------
Thomas Heller suggested adding more modules to the Windows DLL as
built-in so as to cut back on the number of files required to get Python
to run (py2exe_ stands to benefit from this). The issue of having a
larger DLL to have to load into memory was brought up, but Martin v.
Löwis said that DLLs only load into memory what is needed to run and not
the entire DLL.
The issue of making the overall DLL larger in terms of disk space was
brought up, but the worry was partially minimized when the list of
modules to add was limited to small modules that do not have external
dependencies.
But zlib might break that last rule in order to allow importation from
compressed zip files. The idea of integrating the zlib source into the
Python tree was brought up, but shot down for licensing issues on top of
keeping the code synchronized.
.. _py2exe: http://py2exe.sf.net/
Contributing threads:
`buildin vs. shared modules
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038622.html>`__
--------------------------------------------------
Decorate-sort-undecorate eye for the list.sort guy
--------------------------------------------------
Raymond Hettinger suggested adding built-in support for the
decorate-sort-undecorate (DSU) sorting idiom to list.sort (see the
Python Cookbook recipe at
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/52234 which is
recipe 2.3 in the dead tree version or Tim Peters' intro to chapter 2
for details on the idiom). After a long discussion on the technical
merits of various ways to do this, list.sort gained the keyword
arguments 'key' and 'reverse'.
'key' takes in a function that accepts one argument and returns what the
item should be sorted based on. So running ``[(0,0), (0,2),
(0,1)].sort(key=lambda x: x[1])`` will sort the list based on the second
item in each tuple. Technically the sort algorithm just runs the item
it is currently looking at through the function and then handles the
sorting. This avoids having to actually allocate another list.
'reverse' does what it sounds like based on whether its argument is true
or false.
list.sort also became guaranteed to be stable (this include 'reverse').
A discussion of whether list.sort should return self came up and was
*very* quickly squashed by Guido. The idea of having a second method,
though, that did sort and returned a copy of the sorted list is still
being considered.
Contributing threads:
`decorate-sort-undecorate
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038652.html>`__
`list.sort
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038772.html>`__
-------------------------------
New Python 2.3.2 Windows binary
-------------------------------
Some invalid DLLs made it into the 2.3.2 Windows binary distribution by
accident. It seems to mostly affect Windows 98 and NT 4 users. The
binary has been fixed and put up online. You can tell if you downloaded
the fixed version by checking the filename; the new one is named
Python-2.3.2-1.exe (notice the "-1").
Contributing threads:
`Python-2.3.2 windows binary screwed
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038746.html>`__
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