Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Mar 6)

[Fredrik Lundh]

IMPORTANT:  a bogus "Python-URL!" (roughly, one from four weeks ago)
went out a few hours ago.  Cameron Laird apologizes for this error
and the confusion it has caused.  Now, back to our regularly-scheduled
broadcast ...

Things to read:

    Paul Prescod: Why I Promote Python
        http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html

    Pete Beckman and Greg Wilson: Open Source Meets Big Iron
        http://software-carpentry.codesourcery.com/extern/big-iron.html

    Peter Norvig: Python for Lisp Programmers
        http://www.norvig.com/python-lisp.html

    Dennis Hamilton: Python for Non-Programmers
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591803780

Things to help out with:

    Nathan Wallace is building a Python knowledge base:
        http://python.faqts.com
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591892368

    Fred Drake: How to best help out with the Python
    documentation!
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591003673

Things to prepare for:

    Guido van Rossum: Multi-argument append is illegal,
    and will not be supported in 1.6:
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590886581

    To be on the safe side, make sure you run Tim Peters'
    checkappend.py utility on your sources as soon as
    possible  (It'll find most (but not all) uses of the
    old syntax:
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591243549

    And while you're at it, why not run Moshe Zadka's
    selfnanny.py on your code as well:
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=593057376

Other stuff from the newsgroup:

    Greg Wilson looks for an XML DTD for Python Source.
    Paul Prescod is rather sceptical:
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/viewthread.xp?AN=591761643
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=592820382

    Roger Klaveness: How to run Zope on Mac OS X
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=593038130

    David Fisher: Accessing I/O ports on Windows 95
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=592598772

    Darrell Gallion: How to get a notification event when
    a directory is modified (Windows only)
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591535488

    David Ullrich: How to get Windows to recognize Python scripts
    (if the installer didn't do that for you)
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590948663

    Oleg Broytmann: How to send a binary file attachment
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590791917

    Tim Ottinger and Fredrik Lundh: When to compile regular expressions?
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590851115

    Various Pythoneers: What Python books are suitable for beginners?
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/viewthread.xp?AN=590577759

    Guido van Rossum: New mailing list for IDLE development
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591322587

    Michal Wallace: Would open source projects move faster if people
    use more Python?
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590732971

    Fredrik Lundh: repr vs. str (according to the eff-bot)
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=590939567

Newsgroup logistics:

    All time high on comp.lang.python: 3977 posts in February
        http://starship.python.net/crew/just/FindMailStats/

    David Fisher: Advanced newsgroup statistics!
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=592196189

    Is 1000 posts per week too much to handle?  Some Pythoneers
    argue for a newsgroup split (unfortunately, the thread itself
    has also split):
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/dnquery.xp?ST=PS&QRY=&defaultOp=AND&DBS=1&format=threaded&showsort=score&maxhits=25&LNG=ALL&subjects=splitting+comp.lang.python+&groups=comp.lang.python

    On the other hand, maybe zero posts per week is too little?
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/viewthread.xp?AN=592696098

Finally, some interesting software announcements:

    Constantinos Kotsokalis: PyAsync: An Asynchronous TCP Server Module
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591283800

    Helmut Michels: DISLIN 7.3 (a data plotting library for Python)
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=592614308

    Sean McGrath: Pyxie: An Open Source XML Processing Library for Python
        http://xml.com/pub/coverpage/newspage.html#ni2000-02-28-a

    Will Ware: Microthreads package for Stackless Python
        http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=591530057



========================================================================

Everything you want is probably one or two clicks away in these pages:

      Python.org's Python Language Website is the center of Pythonia
          http://www.python.org

      eff-bot's complements this digest with his daily python url
          http://hem.passagen.se/eff/url.htm

      Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group
          mailing lists http://www.python.org/sigs/

      Python Consortium emerges as an independent nexus of activity
          http://www.python.org/consortium

      The Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collects Python resources
          http://www.vex.net/~x/parnassus/   

      Python To-Do List anticipates some of Python's future direction
          http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/todo.py

      Python Journal is at work on its second issue
          http://www.pythonjournal.com

      Links2Go is a new semi-automated link collection; it's impressive
      what AI can generate
          http://www.links2go.com/search?search=python

      Archive probing trick of the trade:
          http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=&DBS=2&ST=PS&defaultOp=AND&LNG=ALL&format=threaded&showsort=date&maxhits=100&groups=comp.lang.python


Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
  http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html
or
  http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=~g%20comp.lang.python%20Python-URL%21


Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
  http://www.egroups.com/list/python-url-leads/

To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning,
ask <claird at neosoft.com> to subscribe.  Mention "Python-URL!".


-- The Python-URL! Team--

Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Python-URL!" project.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html