Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jul 9)

[Emile van Sebille]

Pythonic Quote of the Week...
    The existence of rapid development interpreters like Perl
    and Python, combined with a wide array of modules providing
    quick interfaces to various protocols, servers, and
    functionalities, heralds the beginning of *real* rapid
    application development. The long delayed promise is finally
    a reality. This new ability provides a great revenue model
    for the small, independent software developer, as well as
    the employee who loves to get in, make a mark, and go on to
    the next project. It yields cost savings, revenue increases,
    and better designed software to corporations.
      - Steve Litt http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200101/200101.htm


    If you need a patch to get win32ras working on win9x, Les Schaffer
    has one you can help him test.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:1f7ektcggljf59ab7e4aj7mf7fg5ujot96@4ax.com

    Dave Cole makes a sequence-to-CSV tool available.  Too bad the one
    I have to write this week isn't in Python...
         http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:m34rst3rt1.fsf@vole.object-craft.com.au

     On the distributed extension/module front, Paul Prescod shows us
     how ActiveState uses pyppm to install modules.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994368791.9779.python-list@python.org
    ... and imagines how easy it may someday be.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994370230.11280.python-list@python.org
    ... while Bruce Sass suggests we take a closer look at adapting the
    Debian package manager apt - Advanced Package Tool.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994541056.31455.python-list@python.org

    Alex Martelli points out a *fast* way to extract the phone number
    from a formatted string.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:9i2jv703cm@enews2.newsguy.com

    Martin von Lewis responds to a laundry list of valid quibbles to be
    found in the standard library.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:j4wv5suay4.fsf@informatik.hu-berlin.de
    ... and Carlos Ribeiro suggests a new PEP to set standards for additions to the Library.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994034642.25601.python-list@python.org

    In the Current Events column: While the Fourth was celebrated in
    the States, in France freedom was celebrated differently.  The
    Python Track at the Libre Software Meeting started July 4th, and
    we're waiting to hear how the European Python Meeting went last
    weekend as part of the larger LSM get together.  Watch for news.
        http://lsm.abul.org/program/topic19/
    ... and now for something entirely different - ehh, maybe not. 
    But, join Greg Ward over the next two weeks as Monty Python hits
    the big screen in Montreal.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994322041.31501.clpa-moderators@python.org

    Gerhard Haring wants to put a Python team together for 72 hours
    of non-stop fun competing to win the International Functional
    Programming Contest.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:slrn9k9hbd.8uh.gerhard.nospam@lilith.hqd-internal
    ... See the contest homepage for details.  Prizes are offered! 
    Win bragging rights!
        http://cristal.inria.fr/ICFP2001/prog-contest/

    Jason R. Mastaler releases the next version of Tagged Message
    Delivery Agent (TMDA), a Python application for qmail systems
    designed to significantly reduce the amount of SPAM you get.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994378561.4870.clpa-moderators@python.org

    C. Laurence Gonsalves points us to a warning about Microsoft's
    new OS, XP.  It looks like deja vue all over again.  Couldn't they
    just as easily have used dongles? ;-)
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:slrn9kakd8.v4j.clgonsal@keeshah.penguinpowered.com

    To gain an appreciation of just how hard Python authors have worked
    and what they've gone through, Chris Barker points us to Philip
    Greenspun's story on writing a dead-trees computer book.  As a result,
    AMK's book is not due out soon.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:3dofqzqbvo.fsf@ute.cnri.reston.va.us

    Kragen Sitaker warns that exec and eval are an easy way to write
    code that works some of the time and breaks in spectacular and
    completely unexpected ways.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:XZD%256.19931$zT1.1101722@e420r-atl3.usenetserver.com

    Doug Fort shares a pattern for breaking out of threads.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:3b44660f_2@news5.uncensored-news.com

    Paul Prescod introduces PEP-261 promoting support for wide unicode
    characters.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994017483.31644.python-list@python.org

    Mike Fletcher adapts Ka-Ping Lee's pydoc for use as a Package
    Documentation Generator.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994245607.15064.python-list@python.org

    Bernhard Herzog updates Sketch 0.6.12 - A vector drawing program,
    and recommends that users of 0.6.10 & .11 upgrade.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.994378561.4871.clpa-moderators@python.org

    David Goodger provides a quick rundown of non-Zope templating
    alternatives.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:B76693CB.13B8D%25dgoodger%40bigfoot.com

    Tom Malcolmson releases pySTL, a Python extension that exposes
    the C++ STL for use from Python.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:hin17.110546$Mf5.30282205@news3.rdc1.on.home.com

    Levente Sandor finds a zip file handler lurking in wxPython.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:_eZ%256.4201%24Kf3.33223%40www.newsranger.com

    Those with database related questions were adequately answered.
    Two posts stand out: in one, Armin Steinhof provides us with a list
    of Python related database resources.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:9hphiu0dks@drn.newsguy.com
    ... and then Gerhard Haring points out that he's the editor of a
    Python Database resource location site and asks for missing
    locations to be added.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:slrn9k0olm.pc.gerhard.nospam@lilith.hqd-internal

--LOL on c.l.py:
  bdfl: I'd say it's too little value for too much disturbance (a new keyword).
  </F>: given the amount of other potentially disturbing stuff going into 2.2, I doubt anyone would notice...


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

Everything 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
    daily python url
         http://www.pythonware.com/daily  

    comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software.  Be
    sure to scan this newly-revitalized newsgroup at least weekly.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python.announce

    Michael Hudson continues Andrew Kuchling's marvelous tradition
    of summarizing action on the python-dev mailing list once every
    other week.
        http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/summaries/
        http://www.amk.ca/python/dev

    The Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collect 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/

    The Python Software Foundation has replaced the Python Consortium
    as an independent nexus of activity
        http://www.python.org/psf/

    Cetus does much of the same
        http://www.cetus-links.de/oo_python.html

    Python FAQTS
        http://python.faqts.com/

    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 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.*

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
  http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html
or
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python


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