Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Dec 11)

Mon Dec 11 12:52:45 EST 2006

QOTW:  "I still want to keep compile time type checking to make sure I
don't make any mistakes."
"Sounds like you want two wives, but I'm pretty sure polygamy gets a
checkbox in the naughty category on Santa's list" -- George Jempty
(commenting on "Dear Open Source Santa," by Paul Browne)
    http://www.oreillynet.com/onjava/blog/2006/12/dear_open_source_santa.html#comment-384244

"But if you care to give it a closer look, you may understand that Python's
main advantage is not seizable by feature and performance charts." -- Soni
Bergraj (on comp.lang.python, responding to a cross-posted Lisp vs. Python
inquiry)
    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/3112282696d61bb8

"Have you programmed in Python ?  The standard libraries are a bit 
disorganised but there is clear documentation, most things that one
wants are provided, and if there is more than one of anything then all
but one are explicitly deprecated with a reference to the preferred
interface. (I'm not a fan of Python, by the way, but like any programmer
in the larger world I deal with it occasionally.)" -- Ian Jackson (on
comp.lang.lisp, showing that even Python's non-fans can say good things
about the language)
    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/011ffd16e6364e8f

"It would probably be fair to say that the more you know about a variety
of languages, the more you appreciate Python." -- Harry George (on
comp.lang.python, providing a quote of the week by "popular demand")
    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/7c41f6c78e882b6e

    It's the final public PyPy sprint in PyPy's EU-funded era:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/270d99cd4ca3d387

    On another "performant Python" front, Shed Skin's author gets back to 
    development on that particular Python-to-C++ compiler...
        http://shed-skin.blogspot.com/2006/12/shed-skin-0015.html

    ... and discovers an interesting Python-powered tool for subverting
    certain Apple-branded music devices:
        http://shuffle-db.sourceforge.net/

    Employing the previously mentioned pyplus in a game development setting, 
    "Galcon was originally created for the April 2006 Ludum Dare competition.
    It won the contest with first places in four categories and second place
    in the fifth."
        http://www.pygame.org/projects/20/340/

    The industrious Martin v. L=F6wis reports back on possible Linux
    Standard Base (LSB) inclusion for Python:
        http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-December/070186.html

    Although PyCon is still some time away (late February), lots of work has 
    already been done reviewing talk proposals (as mentioned in the previous 
    Python-URL!). Here are the hard-working reviewers:
        http://pycon.blogspot.com/2006/12/notes-on-proposal-selection.html

    And a recent Ron Stephens Python411 podcast seeks to prepare us for the
    event:
        http://www.awaretek.com/plf.html

    Meanwhile, a real Python-related event took place at the time of writing;
    that was OSDC 2006 in Melbourne, Australia:
        http://www.mechanicalcat.net/richard/log/Python/OSDC_2006_report_so_far
        http://www.mechanicalcat.net/richard/log/Python/OSDC_2006_wrapup

    Barry Warsaw's recent NASA-sited Python talk becomes generally available.
        http://isandtcolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/webcasts.html

    Diez B. Roggisch talks CORBA, or at least takes issue with notions of its 
    complexity, adding a link to an amusing imagined dialogue between a Web 
    Services architect and a developer:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/cd31fafd0fdc8609

    Contrary to popular belief, CORBA implementations remain vital - Duncan
    Grisby announces omniORB 4.1.0 and omniORBpy 3.0:
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python.announce/browse_frm/thread/6fed82468151315c/

    And for the obligatory Web programming item, awareness of the
    decentralised identity system OpenID seems to be growing in the
    different Web framework communities, with many mentions of the
    Python-OpenID libraries:
        http://www.openidenabled.com/openid/libraries/python/

    Good luck to the many Users Groups focused on Python, including,
    in particular, nation-wide ones:
        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iranianpythonprogrammers

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

    Python411 indexes "podcasts ... to help people learn Python ..."
    Updates appear more-than-weekly:
        http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.html

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

    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/python/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

    Although unmaintained since 2002, the Cetus collection of Python
    hyperlinks retains a few gems.
        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://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0042/

    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.*

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