QOTW: "Such infrastructure building is in fact fun and instructive -- as long as you don't fall into the trap of *using* such complications in production code, where Python's simplicity rules;-)." -- Alex Martelli http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/41a6c0e1e260cd72/
"C++ to Python is a steep 'unlearning' curve..." -- Philip Smith "URK -- _my_ feeling is that we have entirely *too many* options for stuff like web application frameworks, GUI toolkits, XML processing, ..." -- Alex Martelli http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/a9bdc98acb5acae4/ "We should concentrate on *real* problems, ones that exist in real code, not ones that mostly exist in wild-eyed prose that consists of predictions of pain and death that conspicuously fail to occur, no matter how many times they are repeated or we are exhorted to heed them or face our doom." -- Jeremy Bowers http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/a75da70b0845b6fe/ Special thanks this week to Dean Goodmanson for his help identifying several items. The Online Computer Library Center contest is open. It closes May 15. Among the usual C++ and Java languages, Python also is available for selection: http://www.oclc.org/research/researchworks/contest/default.htm#guidelines Baoqui Chi runs into a documented, but easily overlooked, trap in the handling of __del__ methods and receives good advice on better fixes: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/13ec343eb0a37247/ Steve Holden explains how to think about bytecode management: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/59c0466111b075b8/ in a conversation aimed at Pyro improvement. Michael Tobis sparks off a discussion on the underlying nature of generators and offers a caution on jumping to conclusions about the writings of non-native English speakers: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-January/263448.html Derek finds out that the Python interpereter is smarter about finding resources than it lets on: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-January/263473.html irc.freenode.net #python is overcrowded: the entrance now routes to #python-cleese or #python-gilliam: http://divmod.org/users/washort/python-split.htmlmklm Steve Holden provides an evocative illustration that the rules are there for a reason, even if breaking them doesn't hit you (*ahem*) immediately: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/263851.html In response to a question about rewriting exceptions to include more information, Stefan Behnel gets a couple of rather useful answers: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/263843.html Netcraft Reports 33K Zope servers in January, 55K in February! http://mail.zope.org/pipermail/zope-announce/2005-February/001651.html Joakim Stork discovers that thanks to classes being first class objects in Python, sometimes the best solution is so simple it's often possible to miss it entirely: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/263891.html Someone posts an interesting attempt at a cross-platform way to discover the user's home directory: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/263921.html Metaclasses are handy things. Steven Bethard demonstrates a nice simple use case: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/264037.html As John Machin demonstrates, generating SQL in Python doesn't have to be ugly: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-February/264248.html ======================================================================== 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. 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 Brett Cannon continues the marvelous tradition established by Andrew Kuchling and Michael Hudson 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. [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work. deli.cio.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/ 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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> should get through. To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning (approximately), ask <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list