QOTW: "I used to think anonymous functions (AKA blocks, etc...) would be a nice feature for Python.
Then I looked at a stack trace from a different programming language with lots of anonymous functions. (I believe it was perl.) I became enlightened." - Jonathan Gardner, apparently echoing Guido's criterion of debuggability in language design http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/3ebe7a0b78086acf Editor Cameron Laird apologizes for the following three entries, which appeared in the last installment only in an unusably garbled form: There is no module in the standard library to handle filesystem paths in an OO way - but why? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/f580fb3763208425/ A "History Channel" special: how the way a TAB key was interpreted changed over time http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/82d9181fcd31ffe4/ After a false start, finally we get our first "Is it Call-By-Value or Call-By-Reference?" thread of the year! http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/fd36962c4970ac48/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in the present, Three new preliminary Python versions are now available for testing: Python 2.7 alpha 4 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/779e761d934dbc1a/ Python 3.1.2 release candidate http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.general/656887 Python 2.6.5 release candidate 1 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.devel/111319 Forget those Java recipes when implementing the Singleton pattern: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/9228a3763eb552b3/ How to obtain a module docstring without actually importing it: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/ca97d63ace6ea81d/ Do something only if a certain module is already in use by the current program: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/ee22c223fa73a429/ Functions, bound methods, unbound ones: what are their differences? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/72ab93ba395822ed/ Automatically adding global names to a module: how to do that, and alternatives to use when it's not a good idea: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/40837c4567d64745/ Raymond Hettinger on the rationale behind the collections.Counter class: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/64d0fe87f7ea9e6/ How Tk 8.5 + ttk (the version that ships with Python 2.6) compares to other GUI toolkits: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/d8d24eacf022ed75/ The actual behavior of slicing like L[n::-1] is not properly documented: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/add9aa920b55eacc/ Documenting a function with #comments instead of a proper docstring is silly, isn't it? How does that affect source code quality? (Including historical disgression going back to the PDP-8, the Altair and even nanocomputers...) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/dea5c94f3d058e26/ Coming from Perl, one has to unlearn (bad?) habits and embrace Python's "rigid flexibility": http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/4bfdc60d3f58c960/ http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/24bfa00b428f868f/ And for those perl-like oneliner fans, here is dos2unix: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/c4b63debe91d51c7/ Perl has CPAN. Python has PyPI + easy_install, but they lack many important features. How could we improve that? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/c2c452cc4aaa6e98/ The pysandbox project provides a sandbox where untrusted code cannot modify its environment; now looking for someone to find holes in it: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/t/87bf10f8acede7c3/ ======================================================================== 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 Just beginning with Python? This page is a great place to start: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers The Python Papers aims to publish "the efforts of Python enthusiasts": http://pythonpapers.org/ The Python Magazine is a technical monthly devoted to Python: http://pythonmagazine.com Readers have recommended the "Planet" site: http://planet.python.org comp.lang.python.announce announces new Python software. Be sure to scan this newsgroup weekly. http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python.announce/topics Python411 indexes "podcasts ... to help people learn Python ..." Updates appear more-than-weekly: http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.html The Python Package Index catalogues packages. http://www.python.org/pypi/ Much of Python's real work takes place on Special-Interest Group mailing lists http://www.python.org/sigs/ 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/donations/ The Summary of Python Tracker Issues is an automatically generated report summarizing new bugs, closed ones, and patch submissions. http://search.gmane.org/?author=status%40bugs.python.org&group=gmane.comp.python.devel&sort=date nullege is an interesting search Web application, with the intelligence to distinguish between Python code and comments. It provides what appear to be relevant results, and demands neither Java nor CSS be enabled: http://www.nullege.com Although unmaintained since 2002, the Cetus collection of Python hyperlinks retains a few gems. 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://code.activestate.com/recipes/langs/python/ Many Python conferences around the world are in preparation. Watch this space for links to them. Among several Python-oriented RSS/RDF feeds available, see: http://www.python.org/channews.rdf 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://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0042/ 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 Enjoy the *Python Magazine*. http://pymag.phparch.com/ *Py: the Journal of the Python Language* http://www.pyzine.com Dr.Dobb's Portal is another source of Python news and articles: http://www.ddj.com/TechSearch/searchResults.jhtml?queryText=python and Python articles regularly appear at IBM DeveloperWorks: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/search/searchResults.jsp?searchSite=dW&searchScope=dW&encodedQuery=python&rankprofile=8 Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here: http://search.gmane.org/?query=python+URL+weekly+news+links&group=gmane.comp.python.general&sort=date http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=Python-URL!+group%3Acomp.lang.python&start=0&scoring=d& http://lwn.net/Search/DoSearch?words=python-url&ctype3=yes&cat_25=yes There is *not* an RSS for "Python-URL!"--at least not yet. Arguments for and against are occasionally entertained. Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome. E-mail to <python-...@phaseit.net> should get through. To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday morning (approximately), ask <cla...@phaseit.net> to subscribe. Mention "Python-URL!". Write to the same address to unsubscribe. -- The Python-URL! Team-- Phaseit, Inc. (http://phaseit.net) is pleased to participate in and sponsor the "Python-URL!" project. Watch this space for upcoming news about posting archives. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list