QOTW: "Python is more concerned with making it easy to write good programs than difficult to write bad ones." - Steve Holden
"Scientists build so that they can learn. Programmers and engineers learn so that they can build." - Magnus Lycka "It happens that old Java programmers make one module per class when they start using Python. That's more or less equivalent of never using more than 8.3 characters in filenames in modern operating systems, or to make a detour on your way to work because there used to be a fence blocking the shortest way a long time ago." - Magnus Lycka Python doesn't currently have a case or switch statement. Case blocks are easily simulated with if, elif, and else, but would Python's readability benefit from having it built in?: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/29e45afc78adcd15 A Podcast worth listening to at last. Guido speaks on Python's history and community: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail545.html http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail559.html If your class implements __eq__ but not __ne__, (a = b) does not imply !(a != b). If this something that should be fixed, or just a "gotcha"? http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f6e0986b2c0f01c0 John Machin instructively analyzes several of Excel's defects as a data-management vehicle, obliquely highlighting Python's Zen. Tim Roberts follows up with a small but potentially crucial addendum pertinent, among others, to those who deal with USA "zip codes": http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/index/browse_frm/thread/d14b13c8bc6e8515/ Recent (unreleased) work on distutils allows you to automatically upload packages to PyPI: http://www.amk.ca/diary/archives/003937.html Text files and line endings; Python helps you out on Windows, which can be a little confusing: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/2d3f61b949bca0e9 Kalle wants to protect his instance attributes. He's warned off the idea, but at the same time, alex23 demonstrates an interesting way of doing it using properties(): http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/9f7c29fed95d7586 Creating a Python iterator by wrapping any callable: http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2005/06/14/python-iterators-and-sentinel-values/ Richard Lewis wants resumable exceptions. Python doesn't have them, but Peter Hansen shows him how to achieve what he wants, and Willem shows us how resumable exceptions work in Lisp: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/e3dafce228dd4258 Jan Danielsson is confused about the difference between __str__ and __repr__, and what they are both for: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b37f1e3fae1154d6 The Kamaelia Framework; communicating with and linking Python generators: http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp113.shtml Ron Adams proposes an "also" block to be executed if a "for" loop's "else" block isn't, and more controversially, that the "else" block's meaning be switched: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/b15de260c5ca02e0 How you convince your marketing drones that switching from Python to Java would be A Bad Thing? http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/5b6d1ff54640e9b1 Why should an ambitious 14-year-old look at Python? (And why source-code hiding is a waste of time.) http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/107a4da1dd45b915 ======================================================================== 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-- 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