Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Dec 30)

[Erik Max Francis]

QOTW:  "For my New Year's Resolution, I vow always to close my files
explicitly whenever I can, preferably with a tidy try/finally statement...
:-)"  Peter Hansen

"It rather distresses me that no one appears to have taken the trouble yet
to index all the XML-Python resources in a convenient and unified way." 
Cameron Laird  [but see <URL: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/ >]

"I was going to say this was going to be a slow week, but you folks
surprised me.  Happy holidays, everybody."  Erik Max Francis


Discussion
    A basic question about SyntaxErrors in what is seemingly trivial
    code leads to the usually helpful troubleshooting mantras
    (indenting, lack of trailing newlines, unterminated string
    literals):
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=v0admabg5tsbe7%40corp.supernews.com

    Tim Peters chimes in at the end of the long "Python vs. Java
    garbage collection" thread (mentioned in last week's Python-URL!
    digest), quoting Guido himself (back in 1992) about the guarantees
    imposed by garbage collection and the calling of __del__ methods,
    hopefully putting the subject to rest once and for all:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.1041028056.2027.python-list%40python.org

    Michele Simionato gives us all a cute "cryptic" Christmas present:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-December/136082.html

    Remember, to use properties, you need to inherit from object, as
    Gonçalo Rodrigues reminds us:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=m9st0v42hqg68i1tni60oujs8rvh90qq6g%404ax.com

    Peter Hansen reminds us the only way to kill a thread is to use
    cooperation with the thread itself:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3E0F0985.3D4FF3C1%40engcorp.com

    A question about the semantics of the changing division oeprators
    (/ vs. //) leads to extremely precise and clear responses,
    something we all need in the face of changing language semantics:
        http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.1041194195.2965.python-list%40python.org

    Mike Meyer shows us how obtaining something often considered
    central to functional programming -- currying -- is so easy to
    achieve in Python:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-December/136538.html

Software
    PyChecker 0.8.12 is released:
        http://pychecker.sourceforge.net/

    A new version, 1.5.5, of pygame has been released:
        http://www.pygame.org/

    Napyr (Not a Python Runtime) provides a setup of common Windows
    DLLs, making dependence on a standalone Python installation less
    of a requirement:
        http://p-nand-q.com/e/napyr.html

    Cog (Checkpointed Object Graph object database) provides
    semitransparent persistence for large sets of interrelated Python
    objects:
        http://itamarst.org/software/cog/

    EmPy, a Python templating system, now at version 2.2.4, provides
    mailing lists which users can use to discuss EmPy related issues
    with the author(s) and each other:
        http://www.alcyone.com/pyos/empy/

    imgSeek is a photo collection manager supporting thumbnailing and
    searching, using a PyQT interface:
        http://nieder.kit.net/imgseek/

    Pynfo 0.6.0 is a major enhancement to an IRC bot written in
    Python, using the Twisted framework, that supports network
    bridging and basic "infobot" capabilities including googling, and
    a plugin interface:
        http://sourceforge.net/projects/pynfo/

    PyTraffic is an implementation of the board game Rush Hour:
        http://alpha.luc.ac.be/Research/Algebra/Members/pytraffic/


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

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  
    Mygale is a news-gathering webcrawler that specializes in (new)
    World-Wide Web articles related to Python.
         http://www.awaretek.com/nowak/mygale.html 
    While cosmetically similar, Mygale and the Daily Python-URL
    are utterly different in their technologies and generally in
    their results.

    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

    Brett Cannon continues the marvelous tradition established by 
    Andrew Kuchling and Michael Hudson of summarizing action on the
    python-dev mailing list once every other week.
	http://www.python.org/dev/summary/
        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 Business Forum "further[s] the interests of companies
    that base their business on ... Python."
	http://www.python-in-business.org

    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.org/oo_python.html

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

    The old Python "To-Do List" now lives principally in a
    SourceForge reincarnation.
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse
        http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html
     
    The online Python Journal is posted at pythonjournal.cognizor.com.
    editor at pythonjournal.com and editor at pythonjournal.cognizor.com
    welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding
    of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work.

    *Py: the Journal of the Python Language*
        http://www.pyzine.com

    Tenth International Python Conference 
        http://www.python10.org            

    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://www.ddj.com/topics/pythonurl/         
  http://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html (dormant)
or
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python


Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
E-mail to <Python-URL at phaseit.net> should get through.

To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning
(approximately), ask <claird at phaseit.net> 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.