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.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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 <[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--
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