Python Forum

Hi, I've been thinking about Python vs. Lisp. I've been learning Python the past few months and like it very much. A few years ago I had an AI class where we had to use Lisp, and I absolutely hated it, having learned C++ a few years prior. They didn't teach Lisp at all and instead expected us to learn on our own. I wasn't aware I had to...

I'm interested in knowing which Python web framework is most like Ruby on Rails. I've heard of Subway and Django. Are there other Rails clones in Python land I don't know about? Which one has largest community/buzz about it?

The definition of a component model I use below is a class which allows properties, methods, and events in a structured way which can be recognized, usually through some form of introspection outside of that class. This structured way allows visual tools to host components, and allows programmers to build applications and libraries visually in...

I was looking for a function or method that would return the index to the first matching element in a list. Coming from a C++ STL background, I thought it might be called "find". My first stop was the Sequence Types page of the Library Reference (http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq.html); it wasn't there. A search of the Library Reference's...

I would like to get everyone's thoughts on two new dictionary methods: def count(self, value, qty=1): try: self += qty except KeyError: self = qty def appendlist(self, key, *values): try:

The "escape" function in the "cgi" module escapes characters with special meanings in HTML. The ones that need escaping are '<', '&' and '"'. However, cgi.escape only escapes the quote character if you pass a second argument of True (the default is False): 'the "quick" &amp; &lt;brown&gt; fox' 'the &quot;quick&quot; &amp; &lt;brown&gt; fox' This seems to me to be...

As someone who learned C first, when I came to Python everytime I read about a new feature it was like, "Whoa! I can do that?!" Slicing, dir(), getattr/setattr, the % operator, all of this was very different from C. I'm curious -- what is everyone's favorite trick from a non-python language? And -- why isn't it in Python? Here's my...

I am contemplating getting into Python, which is used by engineers I admire - google and Bram Cohen, but was horrified to read "no variable or argument declarations are necessary." Surely that means that if I misspell a variable name, my program will mysteriously fail to work with no error message. If you don't declare variables, you...

Tabs versus Spaces in Source Code Xah Lee, 2006-05-13 In coding a computer program, there's often the choices of tabs or spaces for code indentation. There is a large amount of confusion about which is better. It has become what's known as “religious war� — a heated fight over trivia. In this essay, i like to explain what is the...

I've never had any call to use floating point numbers and now that I want to, I can't! *** Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, May 1 2007, 17:47:05) on win32. *** 0.29999999999999999 0.29999999999999999

I apologize in advance for launching this post but I might get enlightment somehow (PS: I am _very_ agnostic ;-). - 1) I do not consider my intelligence/education above average - 2) I am very pragmatic - 3) I usually move forward when I get the gut feeling I am correct - 4) Most likely because of 1), I usually do not manage to fully explain...

Playing with Prothon today, I am fascinated by the idea of eliminating classes in Python. I'm trying to figure out what fundamental benefit there is to having classes. Is all this complexity unecessary? Here is an example of a Python class with all three types of methods (instance, static, and class methods). # Example from Ch.23,...

I've read that one of the design goals of Python was to create an easy- to-use English-like language. That's also one of the design goals of Flaming Thunder at http://www.flamingthunder.com/ , which has proven easy enough for even elementary school students, even though it is designed for scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Hi, I am a beginner in Python, and am wondering what is it about the indentation in Python, without which python scripts do not work properly. Why can't the indentation not so strict so as to give better freedom to the user? Is there any plausible reason behind this? Cheers! Sateesh

Hello, I just read this mail by Brett Cannon: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-October/069139.html where the "PSF infrastracture committee", after weeks of evaluation, recommends using a non open source tracker (called JIRA - never heard before of course) for Python itself. Does this smell "Bitkeeper fiasco" to anyone...

Are there any commercial, or otherwise obfuscators for python source code or byte code and what are their relative advantages or disadvantages. I wonder because there are some byte code protection available for java and .NET, although from what i've read these seem to be not comprehensive as protection schemes

I was under the assumption that everything in python was a refrence... so if I code this: lst = for i in lst: if i==2: i = 4 print lst I though the contents of lst would be modified.. (After reading that

Hi all, I'm a recent, belated convert from Perl. I work in a physics lab and have been using Python to automate a lot of measurement equipment lately. It works fabulously for this purpose. Recently I've wanted to start writing GUIs for some of my programs, for data visualization and to make the programs easier to use for some of my...

Hi, first, python is one of my fav languages, and i'll definitely keep developing with it. But, there's 1 one thing what I -really- miss: data hiding. I know member vars are private when you prefix them with 2 underscores, but I hate prefixing my vars, I'd rather add a keyword before it. Python advertises himself as a full OOP language,...

This has to do with class variables and instances variables. Given the following: <code> class _class: var = 0 #rest of the class

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think about....

Moin, short question: is there any language combining the syntax, flexibility and great programming experience of Python with static typing? Is there a project to add static typing to Python? Thank you, -- greetz tom

Comrades, During our current discussion of the fate of functional constructs in python, someone brought up Guido's bull on the matter: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=98196 He says he's going to dispose of map, filter, reduce and lambda. He's going to give us product, any and all, though, which is nice of him.

I'm a newcomer to python: - E01: The Java Failure - May Python Helps? http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/75f0c5c35374f553 - I've download (as suggested) the python 2.4 installer for windows. Now I have problems to compile python extension that some packages

Software Needs Philosophers by Steve Yegge, 2006-04-15. Software needs philosophers. This thought has been nagging at me for a year now, and recently it's been growing like a tumor. One that plenty of folks on the 'net would love to see kill me.