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/...e45afc78adcd15
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/...e0986b2c0f01c0
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/...b13c8bc6e8515/
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/...3f61b949bca0e9
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/...7c29fed95d7586
Creating a Python iterator by wrapping any callable:
http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/20...ntinel-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/...dafce228dd4258
Jan Danielsson is confused about the difference between __str__ and
__repr__, and what they are both for:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...7f1e3fae1154d6
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/...5de260c5ca02e0
How you convince your marketing drones that switching from Python to
Java would be A Bad Thing?
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...6d1ff54640e9b1
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/...7a4da1dd45b915
================================================== ======================
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/P...grammersWeblog
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=d...ython.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_usub...python%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?...ShowStatus=all
The old Python "To-Do List" now lives principally in a
SourceForge reincarnation.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid...70&func=browse
http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0042.html
The online Python Journal is posted at pythonjournal.cognizor.com.
ed****@pythonjournal.com and ed****@pythonjournal.cognizor.com
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=d...python&num=100
http://groups.google.com/groups?meta....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...t=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 <Py********@phaseit.net> should get through.
To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning
(approximately), ask <cl****@phaseit.net> 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.
