Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jun 20)

[Cameron Laird]

ANNOUNCEMENT:  we had an incident with backups of the "Python-URL!"
mailing list.  It's possible we lost one or two transactions from the
last week.  If you aren't receiving an e-mailed copy of this weekly
news digest that you should, or are receiving one when you shouldn't,
please alert me through an e-mail reply.

QOTW:  "[L]exical closures bind to names, default arguments bind to
values." - Fredrik Lundh 
    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/8916574e3c60750d
    has commentary

"Programming is not just creating strings of instructions for a computer
to execute.  It's also 'literary' in that you are trying to communicate
a program structure to other humans reading the code." - Paul Rubin


    Ravi Teja posts a native win32 Yes-No dialogue in two lines:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/d2603fd699857fcf
    ... makes a case that there might be a place in the world 
    for Scala:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/0cccf81bf834b103
    ... and cleverly enlists decorators to argue in favor of macros
    on the premise that "[r]epresentational minimalism" is no vice in
    a DSL (which is, of course, S to its D):
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/54425e8137612ae4
    Spirited rejoinders follow the latter.

    Alex and Bruno remark on the languages Google uses, among
    which Python remains of course prominent:
	 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/d7ed5b2061c5cc0d/

    Roger Upole can capture a Win32 window to a .bmp image:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/2619bc119298041a

    Rather than speculate about semantics or performance, Python
    makes it easy enough to measure and validate through the
    byte-code level:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/5cacc718af68fe97/


========================================================================
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, 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/

    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

    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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