Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jul 12)

[Peter Otten]

QOTW: "Python's a language you can swear by, not at." - Chris

"Every sufficiently advanced LISP application will eventually reimplement
Python." - Hodgson's Law


Chad Himeda asks for a nested loop limit and Peter Hansen answers
with a quick test on the commandline. A discussion on the merits of
code approaching this limit entrails.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

Karl Pech wants to calculate PI using the Monte Carlo method - and fast.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

Chris recollects how he fell in love with Python.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

Marco Aschwanden asks for opinions on the use of multiple return
statements in a single function.
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.158.1089358188.5135.python-list@python.org

Bryan Olson searches for the longest matching prefix of a string using
regular expressions. Michael Hudson offers an alternate approach.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

Contrary to the current documentation, the open() builtin is not
retained for compatibility only. It may even grow some extra logic and
no longer be confined to ordinary files.
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-July/045931.html

Guido van Rossum is less concerned about variable names shading
builtins than many posters on c.l.py.
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-July/045948.html

Anthony Baxter announces release of the first alpha version of
Python 2.4. You are invited to download and participate in the test.
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=mailman.157.1089357112.5135.python-list@python.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.

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 the interests of companies
that base their business on ... Python."
http://www.python-in-business.org

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

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.
(e-mail address removed) and (e-mail address removed)
welcome submission of material that helps people's understanding
of Python use, and offer Web presentation of your work.

*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=groups&group=comp.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.

 

[Jacek Generowicz]

Guido van Rossum is less concerned about variable names shading
builtins than many posters on c.l.py.
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-July/045948.html

This gives a message about python.org's mail system moving (and that
it is expected to finish 10 days ago).

Anybody know a convenient alternative way of seeing this message ?

 

[Peter Otten]

This gives a message about python.org's mail system moving (and that
it is expected to finish 10 days ago).

Anybody know a convenient alternative way of seeing this message ?

I checked it just now, maybe you need to clear some cache?

For now (GvR answering Skip Montanaro):

That was probably a checkin I made. I would have left it alone except the
code was

file = open(...)

As long as I was changing the variable name to not mask the builtin I
changed the call as well. Had it been

f = open(...)

I probably would have kept my hands off.

Hm... I'm not particularly concerned over fixing all code that uses
file as a local variable name, unless it actually is likely to need to
reference the file class by name; builtins are in the last scope
searched for the very reason that no programmer is expected to keep up
with all additions to the built-in library, so locals hiding built-ins
is okay. (Not that it isn't a good idea to avoid obvious clashes --
'str' for string variables and 'type' for type variables being the
most obvious stumbling blocks.)

In any case, I was under the impression that file() was the wave of the
future and open() a nod to the past.

Now you know better...

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
</quote>

 

[Jacek Generowicz]

I checked it just now, maybe you need to clear some cache?

Bah, yes, it's some sort of local problem.

Thanks.