Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (May 5)

[Steven Taschuk]

QOTW:  "Until a couple of weeks ago I had never written a unit test, and
believed that static typing was a good help for reducing errors.  After
writing and executing a couple of tests, that idea was crushed [...]"                                   -- Ulkis Blaffa

"... [T]he one thing that does seem to be (almost!) always worth doing
is writing plenty of tests, when it's easy to do so (and consider
modifying your design to make testing easier)."  -- andrew cooke
    http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.1051397621.3669.python-list%40python.org


Discussion:
    Michael Chermside explains why subclassing tuple needs two-stage
    initialization (that is, __new__ plus __init__), and refers us to
    a discussion of two-stage initialization in the context of Cocoa.
        <http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=mailman.1051720556.13598.python-list%40python.org>

    Jeff Epler explains why "for line in sys.stdin" doesn't stop on
    the first ctrl-d.
        <http://groups.google.com/groups?th=11cce50b4e6feb23#link2>

    W Isaac Carroll proposes a do-while loop syntax in PEP 315,
    "Enhanced While Loop".
        <http://groups.google.com/groups?th=e0aeec543a8579db>

    David Eppstein proposes extending the *args syntax from function
    calls to other contexts.
        <http://groups.google.com/groups?th=5b6de97c57b8fee8>

Announcements:
    ctypes 0.6.0: A Python package to create and manipulate C data
    types in Python, and to call functions in dynamically linked
    libraries.
        <http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes.html>

    Pyana 0.8.0: A Python interface to the Xalan C XSLT processor.
        <http://pyana.sourceforge.net/>

    PyKota v1.05: An internationalized, complete, centralized and
    extensible print quota solution for CUPS and LPRng.
        <http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/>

    PyObjC 0.9: PyObjC is a bridge between Python and Objective-C.
        <http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/>

    python-otp 1.0: A module which implements support for all
    requirements, recommendations, and optional features described in
    "A One-Time Password System" (RFC 2289).
        <http://moin.conectiva.com.br/PythonOtp>

    PythonCAD, sixth release: The goal of this project is to create a
    fully scriptable drafting program that will match and eventually
    exceed features found in commercial CAD software.
        <http://www.pythoncad.org>

    Skyron, first release: Skyron is a Python module which transforms
    XML documents according to text files called "recipes".
        <http://www.wilson.co.uk/skyron/skyron.html>



========================================================================
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/

    The Python Package Index catalogues packages.
        http://www.python.org/pypi/

    The somewhat older Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collects references
    to all sorts of 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

    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:
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or
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Python-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python


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