[The HTML version of this Summary is available at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-06-01_2005-06-15.html]
===================== Summary Announcements ===================== --------------------------------- Bug Day: Saturday, June 25th 2005 --------------------------------- AMK organized another `Python Bug Day`_ on Saturday, June 25th. Hope you got a chance to help out! .. _Python Bug Day: http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBugDay Contributing Threads: - `Bug day on the 25th? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054126.html>`__ [SJB] ---------------------- FishEye for Python CVS ---------------------- Peter Moore has kindly set up `Fish Eye for the Python CVS repository`_. FishEye is a repository browsing, searching, analysis and monitoring tool, with great features like RSS feeds, Synthetic changesets, Pretty ediffs and SQL like searches. Check it out! .. _Fish Eye for the Python CVS repository: http://fisheye.cenqua.com/viewrep/python/ Contributing Threads: - `FishEye on Python CVS Repository <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054127.html>`__ [SJB] -------------------------------- PyPy Sprint: July 1st - 7th 2005 -------------------------------- The next `PyPy`_ sprint is scheduled right after EuroPython 2005 in Gothenborg, Sweden. It will focus mainly on translating PyPy to lower level backends, so as to move away from running PyPy on top of the CPython interpreter. There will be newcomer-friendly introductions, and other topics are possible, so if you have any interest in PyPy, now is the time to help out! .. _PyPy: http://codespeak.net/pypy Contributing Threads: - `Post-EuroPython 2005 PyPy Sprint 1st - 7th July 2005 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054162.html>`__ [SJB] --------------------------------- Reminder: Google's Summer of Code --------------------------------- Just a reminder that the friendly folks at Python have set up a `wiki`_ and a `mailing list`_ for questions about `Google's Summer of Code`_. For specific details on particular projects (e.g. what needs done to complete Python SSL support) participants may also ask questions to the Python-Dev list. .. _wiki: http://wiki.python.org/moin/CodingProjectIdeas .. _mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/summerofcode .. _Google's Summer of Code: http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html [SJB] ---------------------- hashlib Review Request ---------------------- Gregory P. Smith noted that he has finished up the hashlib work he started on a few months ago for patches `935454`_ and `1121611`_ (where the final patch is). He feels that the patch is ready, and would like anyone interested to review it; the patch incorporates both OpenSSL hash support and SHA256+SHA512 support in a single module. `The documentation`_ can be accessed separately, for convenience. .. _935454: http://python.org/sf/935454 .. _1121611: http://python.org/sf/1121611 .. _The documentation: http://electricrain.com/greg/hashlib-py25-doc/module-hashlib.html Contributing Threads: - `hashlib - faster md5/sha, adds sha256/512 support <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054156.html>`__ [TAM] ========= Summaries ========= ---------------- PEP 343 Progress ---------------- The PEP 343 discussions were mostly concluded. Guido posted the newest version of the PEP to both Python-Dev and Python-List and the discussions that followed were brief and mostly in agreement with the proposal. The PEP 343 syntax was modified slightly to require parentheses if VAR is a comma-separated list of variables. This made the proposal forward-compatible to extending the with-block for multiple resources. In the favored extension, the with-block would take multiple expressions in a manner analogous to import statements:: with EXPR1 [as VAR1], EXPR2 [as VAR2], ...: BLOCK However, if this extension becomes part of Python, it will likely enter some time after Python 2.5, once users have a better idea of what with-block use-cases look like. There were also some brief discussions about how with-blocks should behave in the presence of async exceptions like the KeyboardInterrupt generated from a ^C. While it seemed like it would be a nice property for with-blocks to guarantee that the __exit__ methods would still be called in the presence of async exceptions, making such a guarantee proved to be too complicated. Thus the final conclusion, as summarized by Nick Coghlan, was that "with statements won't make any more guarantees about this than try/finally statements do". Contributing Threads: - `PEP 343 rewrite complete <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054039.html>`__ - `For review: PEP 343: Anonymous Block Redux and Generator Enhancements <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python- dev/2005-June/054082.html>`__ - `PEP 343 - next steps <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054138.html>`__ - `PEP 343 question <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054230.html>`__ [SJB] -------------- Do-While Loops -------------- Raymond Hettinger asked for a "dowhile" loop of the form:: dowhile <cond>: <body> which would run <body> once before testing the <cond>, and then proceed as a normal while-loop. He was subsequently referred to `PEP 315`_, which proposes a slightly different syntax for a similar purpose. The discussion expanded to not only do-while loops, but also loops with break conditions at locations other than the beginning and the end of a loop. A variety of syntax proposals were suggested, but none seemed compellingly better than the current syntax:: while True: ... if <cond>: break ... which supports putting the condition(s) at any location in the loop. .. _PEP 315: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0315.html Contributing Threads: - `Wishlist: dowhile <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054167.html>`__ [SJB] ------------------------------------ Reference Counting in Module Globals ------------------------------------ Both Michael Hudson and Skip Montanaro noticed that Py_INCREFs appeared to be unnecessary when adding an object to a module's globals. Armin Rigo explained that after a module is initialized, the import mechanism makes a "hidden" copy of the module's dict so that the module can be reloaded. This means that objects added as module globals will always have an extra reference count in this hidden dict. However, Armin Rigo agreed with Michael Hudson that this explanation was no longer applicable after an interpreter shutdown. The best conclusion he could draw in this a situation: "it's all quite obscure". Contributing Threads: - `refcounting vs PyModule_AddObject <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054232.html>`__ - `[Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Modules _csv.c, 1.37, 1.38 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054239.html>`__ [SJB] ----------------------------------------- Reorganising the standard library (again) ----------------------------------------- The ever-popular topic of reorganising the standard library came up again this fortnight, courtesy of Reinhold Birkenfeld. The questions posed included hierarchy (flat/nested), third party modules, size (batteries included or not), and the standard GUI toolkit. As usual, there was a great deal of discussion, but not a great deal of consensus about any of these (other than that including ElementTree in the standard library would be good), and given the amount of breakage this would involve (and that Guido didn't weigh in at all), it seems unlikely that much will change before Python 3000; although Josiah Carlson indicated that he had a patch that would avoid a lot of breakage. Contributing Threads: - `Thoughts on stdlib evolvement <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054092.html>`__ [TAM] -------------------------- First Mac-tel, now Py-tel? -------------------------- Guido mentioned that Intel has a free (as in beer) C `compiler for Linux`_, and that a friend of his (who is involved in its production and marketing) would like to see how it performs with Python. The compiler wasn't news to some of the -dev crowd, though, with Martin v. Löwis pointing out a `bug report on the compiler`_, as well as a `patch`_, and a `message indicating that some people had problems`_ with the resulting interpreter. Martin pointed out that there were some old (2002 and 2004) results indicating that the Intel compiler was slightly faster, but couldn't find any results for the latest version. Michael Hoffman gave summaries of more testing, which gave a 16% speed increase. He felt that, while this was significant, he wasted a lot of time dealing with resulting problems with extension modules, and so it doesn't use as much any more. .. _compiler for Linux: http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/clin/index.htm .. _bug report on the compiler: http://python.org/sf/1162001 .. _patch: http://python.org/sf/1162023 .. _message indicating that some people had problems: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-March/270672.html Contributing Threads: - `Compiling Python with Intel compiler? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054227.html>`__ [TAM] ------------------ sys.path Behaviour ------------------ Reinhold Birkenfeld noticed that sys.path's first element is '' in interactive sessions, but the directory containing the script otherwise, and wondered if this was intentional. Guido clarified that he's always liked it this way, so that if you use os.path.join to join it with a script name you don't get a spurious ".\" preprended. The "absolutizing" of sys.path entries, however, is reasonably new; Bob Ippolito pointed out that is also `problematic with regards to path hooks`_. He has a `patch to fix it`_, but hasn't had a chance to commit it; Phillip J. Eby noted that the patch doesn't fix completely fix it, however, and indicated that fixing site.py with respect to `PEP 302`_ will be quite challenging. .. _problematic with regards to path hooks: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-April/052885.html .. _patch to fix it: http://python.org/sf/1174614 .. _PEP 302: http://python.org/peps/pep-0302.html Contributing Threads: - `sys.path in interactive session <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054077.html>`__ [TAM] ---------------- More on old bugs ---------------- The discussion about what to do with old bugs continued this fortnight. Against the concern about prematurely closing old bugs, there was the suggestion that given that there are such a huge number of open bug reports, and since closed bugs can be reopened, this wasn't such a problem. It was suggested that the act of closing a bug might trigger activity to get it fixed, if necessary. The thread died off before a consensus was reached, unfortunately. Contributing Threads: - `Closing old bugs <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054038.html>`__ [TAM] --------------------------------- Improved pseudo-switch statements --------------------------------- Skip Montanaro has been playing around with getting the Python compiler to recognize switch-like statements and generate O(1) code out of them. The rules are that the object being compared ('x') can be any expression, but must be precisely the same in each elif clause, the comparison operator must be "==", and the right-hand-side of the test must evaluate to a simple hashable constant. However, if evaluating 'x' has side-effects, then this would break code. Various people felt that it was unwise to allow 'x' to be any expression; Anthony Baxter suggested that one could allow any local object that didn't define a comparison operator. Contributing Threads: - `Multiple expression eval in compound if statement? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054164.html>`__ [TAM] =============== Skipped Threads =============== - `Adventures with Decimal <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054046.html>`__ - `Weekly Python Patch/Bug Summary <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054049.html>`__ - `AST manipulation and source code generation <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054052.html>`__ - `Vestigial code in threadmodule? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054054.html>`__ - `[Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Lib sre_compile.py, 1.57, 1.58 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python- dev/2005-June/054069.html>`__ - `Split MIME headers into multiple lines near a space <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054090.html>`__ - `python running in several threads <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054110.html>`__ - `problem installing current cvs <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054116.html>`__ - `b32encode and NUL bytes <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054130.html>`__ - `Example workaround classes for using Unicode with csv module... <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python- dev/2005-June/054129.html>`__ - `Weekly Python Patch/Bug Summary <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054128.html>`__ - `[Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Doc/lib libtokenize.tex, 1.5, 1.6 <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python- dev/2005-June/054131.html>`__ - `Five patch reviews & patch request <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054135.html>`__ - `AIX 4.3, Python 2.4.1 fails in test_exceptions with a core dump <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python- dev/2005-June/054197.html>`__ - `PEP 342 - Enhanced Iterators <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054201.html>`__ - `A bug in pyconfig.h under Linux? <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054214.html>`__ - `Dynamic class inheritance && something else <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005- June/054218.html>`__ - `Weekly Python Patch/Bug Summary <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054229.html>`__ ======== Epilogue ======== ------------ Introduction ------------ This is a summary of traffic on the `python-dev mailing list`_ from June 01, 2005 through June 15, 2005. It is intended to inform the wider Python community of on-going developments on the list on a semi-monthly basis. An archive_ of previous summaries is available online. An `RSS feed`_ of the titles of the summaries is available. You can also watch comp.lang.python or comp.lang.python.announce for new summaries (or through their email gateways of python-list or python-announce, respectively, as found at http://mail.python.org). This is the fifth summary written by the python-dev summary cabal of Steve Bethard, Tim Lesher, and Tony Meyer. To contact us, please send email: - Steve Bethard (steven.bethard at gmail.com) - Tim Lesher (tlesher at gmail.com) - Tony Meyer (tony.meyer at gmail.com) Do *not* post to comp.lang.python if you wish to reach us. The `Python Software Foundation`_ is the non-profit organization that holds the intellectual property for Python. It also tries to advance the development and use of Python. If you find the python-dev Summary helpful please consider making a donation. You can make a donation at http://python.org/psf/donations.html . Every penny helps so even a small donation with a credit card, check, or by PayPal helps. -------------------- Commenting on Topics -------------------- To comment on anything mentioned here, just post to `comp.lang.python`_ (or email python-list at python.org which is a gateway to the newsgroup) with a subject line mentioning what you are discussing. All python-dev members are interested in seeing ideas discussed by the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on something. And if all of this really interests you then get involved and join `python-dev`_! ------------------------- How to Read the Summaries ------------------------- The in-development version of the documentation for Python can be found at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking up any documentation for new code; otherwise use the current documentation as found at http://docs.python.org/ . PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) are located at http://www.python.org/peps/ . To view files in the Python CVS online, go to http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ . Reported bugs and suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge_ project page. Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText_. Any unfamiliar punctuation is probably markup for reST_ (otherwise it is probably regular expression syntax or a typo =); you can safely ignore it. I do suggest learning reST, though; it's simple and is accepted for `PEP markup`_ and can be turned into many different formats like HTML and LaTeX. Unfortunately, even though reST is standardized, the wonders of programs that like to reformat text do not allow me to guarantee you will be able to run the text version of this summary through Docutils_ as-is unless it is from the `original text file`_. .. _python-dev: http://www.python.org/dev/ .. _SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470 .. _python-dev mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev .. _c.l.py: .. _comp.lang.python: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=comp.lang.python .. _PEP Markup: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0012.html .. _Docutils: http://docutils.sf.net/ .. _reST: .. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html .. _PSF: .. _Python Software Foundation: http://python.org/psf/ .. _last summary: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .. _original text file: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/2005-06-01_2005-06-15.ht .. _archive: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .. _RSS feed: http://www.python.org/dev/summary/channews.rdf -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list