Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (May 31)

Simon Brunning python-url at phaseit.net
Tue May 31 12:08:02 EDT 2005


QOTW: "Not tested but confident should be an oxymoron for a
programmer." - Peter Otten

(Asked "Is this unsurprising if I look at it right?") -  "Yes; in
general this is true across many domains for a very large number of
referents of "it" :-)" - John Machin

"Strong typing means there [are] a lot of variables whose names are
in ALL CAPS." - Paul Rubin


    One common Python "gotcha" is that default argument values are
    only evaluated once, at function definition time. David Isaac
    wanted to know where the values are stored:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b09b4e9a78162261
        
    A new era in Python package management?
        http://dirtsimple.org/2005/05/easyinstall-new-era-in-python-package.html
        
    Markus would like to limit his Python script to a fixed percentage of
    CPU usage:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/17f108407779536a
        
    How do you drive-by-wire a car using Python? The Pegasus Team is
    doing some very cool stuff with Python - but I'd want to see their
    test results before going within a mile of the thing.
        http://pegasusbridge.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-do-you-drive-by-wire-car-using.html
        
    Michael Smith wanted to check poker-dice rolls to see if they were a
    full house. Raymond Hettinger gives him general purpose card hand
    detection code:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/1eb194f0547c0c49
        
    George asks for help with a regexp to do quoted string parsing, then
    is shown the light, and uses PyParsing instead.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/7756f2cca64a5def
        
    Fuzzyman tells us how to build a Movable Python CD - that is, Python
    that you can run straight off the CD without any installation - with
    a custom set of packages:
        http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/weblog/arch_d7_2005_05_21.shtml#e48
        
    Why is Python case-sensitive? Because mathematical notation is,
    apparently:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/6cd17bbab3d8ae80
        
    Mark Williamson has difficulty generating API documentation.  Python
    still needs a javadoc analogue that doesn't import code, it seems:
        <http://www.pagefall.com/musings/2005/05/27/twisted,python,documentation,arrggh!>
        
    Gabor would like to be able to write to a single text file from
    multiple processes simultaneously. This is hard.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/475d065fa7871e63
        
    Eval is unsafe at any speed. Duncan Booth takes on all comers and
    shows that you can do dangerous things with eval regardless of
    attempts to make it safe:
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/cbcc21b95af0d9cc
        
    Notable releases:
        Twisted 2.0.1
            http://twistedmatrix.com/
        wxPython 2.6.0.1
            http://wxpython.org/
        IPython 0.6.14
            http://ipython.scipy.org/


========================================================================
Everything Python-related 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
    marvelous 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.

    For far, FAR more Python reading than any one mind should
    absorb, much of it quite interesting, several pages index
    much of the universe of Pybloggers.
	http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/PythonProgrammersWeblog
        http://www.planetpython.org/
        http://mechanicalcat.net/pyblagg.html

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

    Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer continue the marvelous
    tradition early borne by Andrew Kuchling, Michael Hudson and Brett
    Cannon of intelligently 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

    Python Success Stories--from air-traffic control to on-line
    match-making--can inspire you or decision-makers to whom you're
    subject with a vision of what the language makes practical.
        http://www.pythonology.com/success

    The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has replaced the Python
    Consortium as an independent nexus of activity.  It has official
    responsibility for Python's development and maintenance. 
        http://www.python.org/psf/
    Among the ways you can support PSF is with a donation.
        http://www.python.org/psf/donate.html

    Kurt B. Kaiser publishes a weekly report on faults and patches.
        http://www.google.com/groups?as_usubject=weekly%20python%20patch
       
    Cetus collects Python hyperlinks.
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_python.html

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

    The Cookbook is a collaborative effort to capture useful and
    interesting recipes.
	http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python

    Among several Python-oriented RSS/RDF feeds available are
	http://www.python.org/channews.rdf
	http://bootleg-rss.g-blog.net/pythonware_com_daily.pcgi
	http://python.de/backend.php
    For more, see
	http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=python&ShowStatus=all
    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.

    del.icio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary.
    It already aggregates quite a bit of Python intelligence.
        http://del.icio.us/tag/python

    *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:
  http://www.ddj.com/topics/pythonurl/ (requires subscription)
  http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=python-url+group:comp.lang.python*&start=0&scoring=d&
  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.





More information about the Python-list mailing list