From: "Emile van Sebille" <emile@fcfw.fenx.com> To: Dr.Dobb's.Python-URL.distribution@starbase.neosoft.com Subject: Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jul 3) Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 17:22:34 -0500 (CDT) Pythonic Quote of the Week... Quite granted that nobody is forced to use a feature. But when a language becomes too featureful, people start programming in the subdialect they like best, later creating difficulties to other wanting to read their programs, who might like other parts better. One of the reason behind Python legibility success, is that there is almost only one way to do one thing (to contrast with Perl, say). We are progressively sliding away of this virtue. The danger is real. François Pinard http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993966362.10675.python-list@python.org Bernhard Rieter wonders about second system syndrome resulting from the syntactic additions to recent Python releases. The discussion weaves in and out of topics, reviewing how things get done, who does what, and what's needed next. It turns out there's no magic here: people work and volunteer in their areas of interest. Guido tells us we should all do what we do best: the core PythonLabs team should work on the language, and the community the Libraries. Elsewhere it's noted that PythonLabs needs to support library modules accepted to the core distribution, sometimes making the core team reluctant to accept modules not within their areas of expertise. It appears the next step is to work on PEP-0002 so guidelines can be worked out as to which modules will be in the core, and which should be in third party repositories such as the Vaults or ActiveState's planned repository. See the complete thread starting at http://groups.google.com/groups?th=b4a14dbfb3560d93,64&ic=1 ... Tim Peters disagrees with Bernhard's particulars, but warns that some PEPs may be pointing that way http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993788804.16625.python-list@python.org ... while also saying the rate of change will slow down, as the backlog dwindles. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993880666.24740.python-list@python.org Early registration for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention Ends Today. The convention runs July 23-27, 2001 in San Diego, CA. Many Python people are scheduled, including David Ascher, David Beazley, Mark Hammond and Guido van Rossum. Check out the Python session information at http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/pub/w/os2001/sessions_python.html ... the Bird of a Feather Sessions will feature Wesley Chun and Paul Prescod http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/pub/w/os2001/bofs.html ... tutorials will be conducted by Aaron Watters, Aahz, Eric Jones and Wesley Chun. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/pub/10/python_tutorials.html ... and many additional Python related topics covered http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/pub/w/os2001/speakers.html Richard Snow calls for testers and developers to help advance his school library system. See the project home page or his posting for more information. http://richardsnow.bizland.com/opendev/id5.html http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:3B3601BE.3C84E49A@earthlink.net Martijn Faasen answers the question "What's the concept/logic behind object-orientation?" in a succinct posting. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:9h4rto$fmc$1@newshost.accu.uu.nl Create screen savers for windows using Python! Chris Liechti releases a win32 screen saver that includes embedded python and shows how you can write your own version of flying toasters. I did a company wide screen-saver community-access-channel type project last year that I'll rewrite some day using this. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:Xns90D014E757768cliechtimailsch@62.2.32.50 Milan Zamazal has contributed Python 2.1 documentation in GNU info format. Thanks to Fred Drake for pointing this out. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993842806.3648.python-list@python.org Guido reveals that threads of democracy occasionally work loose in the fabric of the BDFL cloak. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:cp7kxvlake.fsf@cj20424-a.reston1.va.home.com OpenDocs put up the first parts of Boudewijn Rempt's Graphical Programming with Python: QT Edition. The book is under development and feedback is asked for. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993884385.26860.python-list@python.org Magnus Lie Hetland hopes to revive Greg Ewing's Python GUI API as a new project named anygui, which will function in a manner similar to anydbm in that it will look for existing backends, and use what is available. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:9hg7fg$dmg$1@tyfon.itea.ntnu.no Paul Prescod and the team at ActiveState push the penny ahead with the starting of the repository of our dreams. This is also the topic of his BOF in San Diego later this month. The combined projects show a lot of promise, and are even now quite useful. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993856425.27427.python-list@python.org Jussi Jumppanen announces the availability of CVS integration for ZeusEdit, a windows based programmer's source code editor. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:3B3BB20B.7514@zeusedit.com Neal Norwitz introduces a new version of PyChecker, a tool for finding common bugs in python source code. It finds problems that are typically caught by a compiler for less dynamic languages, like C and C++. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993642589.9402.python-list@python.org Pete Shinners releases Pygame 1.1 for Python Game Development. There are currently several released open source games and applications built with Pygame. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:OIVZ6.41208$c7.7431279@typhoon.we.rr.com Cayce Ullman tells us that SOAP.py is updated now to version 0.9.7 and moves to sourceforge. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993726240.19493.clpa-moderators@python.org Alex Martelli provides a clue and Dirck Blaskey follows up, showing how to call a module. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:6c8b7eb9.0106250030.51be556d@posting.google.com Robin Becker finds the PMW "loader" slows down imports, and suggests a solution for introspective Tk apps. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:4e4PQKAuqKO7EwDj@jessikat.demon.co.uk Frederik Lundh shows how to un-accent unicode strings for use in searches and filters. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:7M0_6.4105$e5.767781@newsb.telia.net Tim Peters leads us safely through the minefield of threads and generators. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993456458.22004.python-list@python.org Guido presents a PEP to strip buggy un-used portions of xrange from the system http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:mailman.993578546.30453.python-list@python.org ... which leads Tim Peters and James Logajan to go soul searching. http://groups.google.com/groups?ic=1&q=msgid:3B39480C.F4808C1F@Lugoj.Com ======================================================================== Everything 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 daily python url http://www.pythonware.com/daily comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software. Be sure to scan this newly-revitalized newsgroup at least weekly. http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_ugroup=comp.lang.python.announce Michael Hudson continues Andrew Kuchling's marvelous tradition of summarizing action on the python-dev mailing list once every other week. http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/summaries/ http://www.amk.ca/python/dev The Vaults of Parnassus ambitiously collect 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 Software Foundation has replaced the Python Consortium as an independent nexus of activity http://www.python.org/psf/ Cetus does much of the same http://www.cetus-links.de/oo_python.html Python FAQTS http://python.faqts.com/ Python To-Do List anticipates some of Python's future direction http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/todo.py Python Journal is at work on its second issue http://www.pythonjournal.com Links2Go is a new semi-automated link collection; it's impressive what AI can generate http://www.links2go.com/search?search=python 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://purl.org/thecliff/python/url.html 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. 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