[Python-Dev] SWT PyCon Sprint?

2005-03-09 Thread Nicholas Bastin
I realize that this is exceedingly late in the game, but is anybody 
interested in doing a Write-Python-Bindings-for-SWT sprint?  It's been 
brought up before in various places, and PyCon seems the likely place 
to get enough concentrated knowledge to actually get it kicked off and 
somewhat working...

--
Nick
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RE: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Raymond Hettinger
> > If I read the proposal correctly, order would be determined by when
the
> > key was first encountered.  Presumably, that would mean that the
related
> > value would also be the first encountered (not overridden by
later-added
> > keys as dictated by your business requirements).
> 
> Hm  Guess this means we need a PEP!

Or the implementation can have a switch to choose between keep-first
logic or replace logic.

The latter seems a bit odd to me.  The key position would be determined
by the first encountered while the value would be determined by the last
encountered.  Starting with [(10, v1), (20, v2), (10.0, v3)], the
ordered dictionary's items would look like [(10, v3), (20, v2)].  


Raymond
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Steven Bethard
Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Steven Bethard wrote:
> 
> > def filterdups(iterable):
> >  seen = set()
> >  for item in iterable:
> >  if item not in seen:
> >  seen.add(item)
> >  yield item
> >
> > Adding this to, say, itertools would cover all my use cases.  And as
> > long as you don't have too many duplicates, filterdups as above should
> > keep memory consumption down better.
> 
> Thinking about this further - memory usage would be almost identical. By
> the time you completed the iterable, you would have built up exactly the
> same set internally - although probably not as memory efficient since it
> would be being built piecemeal. OTOH, an ordered set has a bit of extra
> memory for maintaining the order, so it's going to be pretty close.

Definitely true that if you iterate through your entire iterable, it
doesn't gain you anything over an OrderedSet.  OTOH, if you only end
up looking at the first N elements of the iterable, then this would be
more efficient than putting the entire iterable into an OrderedSet and
taking the first N from there.  Of course you can put only the first
elements into the OrderedSet, but note that you can't just put in the
first N; you have to add elements of the iterable into the OrderedSet
until it has len(obj) == N.  Not that this should be more than a few
lines of code, but it's code that you wouldn't have to write with
fitlerdups.

That said, you're right of course that filterdups is certainly not a
big win over OrderedSet.  I was really just trying to point out that
if we were just trying to provide a solution to the
filtering-duplicates-while-maintaining-order problem that OrderedSet
wasn't the only path to that goal.  I think since then there have been
a number of other reasonable cases suggested for wanting an
OrderedSet, e.g.:

* A DB result set that is indexed by a key but also maintains row
order [Eli Stevens, Jeff Bauer]

* A config-file data structure that indexes by option names but
maintains the order of elements read from a config file [John
Williams]

* Drop-down field selectors indexed by both name and sequence position
[Jeff Bauer]

So I'm now probably +0.5 on adding an OrderedSet to collections.  Not
that my opinion is particularly influential, of course. ;-)

Steve
-- 
You can wordify anything if you just verb it.
--- Bucky Katt, Get Fuzzy
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Re: [Python-Dev] @deprecated (was: Useful thread project for 2.5?)

2005-03-09 Thread Stephan Richter
On Tuesday 08 March 2005 18:05, Jim Jewett wrote:
>     ... compiler recognition of "@deprecated" in doc comments.
>
> Michael Chermside suggested:
>
>     = code =
>     import warnings
>
>     def deprecated(func):
>         """This is a decorator which can be used to mark functions
>         as deprecated. It will result in a warning being emmitted
>         when the function is used."""
>         def newFunc(*args, **kwargs):
>             warnings.warn("Call to deprecated function.")
>             return func(*args, **kwargs)
>         return newFunc
>
>     = example

This is a recipe for disaster. Creating a new function from the old can have 
unwanted side effects, since you effectively change the object. For example, 
if someone is monkey patching this function, then the deprecation warning 
gets lost. 

In Zope 3's deprecation package, we have decided to put a special deprecation 
proxy around the module (instead of the function) and register a list of 
attribute names (note that it does not matter whether its a class, function 
or other type of object) that are deprecated. The advantage is that you get a 
deprecation warning just by looking up the object.

See: http://svn.zope.org/Zope3/trunk/src/zope/deprecation/

Disclaimer: This code is a bit experimental and might not be the best 
solution. It is currently used in the trunk and does a pretty good job, 
though.

Regards,
Stephan
-- 
Stephan Richter
CBU Physics & Chemistry (B.S.) / Tufts Physics (Ph.D. student)
Web2k - Web Software Design, Development and Training
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RE: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy)
Steven Bethard wrote:

> def filterdups(iterable):
>  seen = set()
>  for item in iterable:
>  if item not in seen:
>  seen.add(item)
>  yield item
> 
> Adding this to, say, itertools would cover all my use cases.  And as
> long as you don't have too many duplicates, filterdups as above should
> keep memory consumption down better.

Thinking about this further - memory usage would be almost identical. By
the time you completed the iterable, you would have built up exactly the
same set internally - although probably not as memory efficient since it
would be being built piecemeal. OTOH, an ordered set has a bit of extra
memory for maintaining the order, so it's going to be pretty close.

The only thing this gains you (and it's significant) is the ability to
work on any iterable lazily.

Tim Delaney
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RE: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy)
Jeff Bauer wrote:

> I'm not specifically lobbying for its inclusion in
> stdlib, but I often find an ordered dict useful when I
> want both ordered and random access, e.g. situations:
> 
>- database table fields/attributes
>- drop down field selectors

Yep - these are also cases that are familiar to me - it's the type of
thing you don't think about until you actually need it.

> In both cases, I could get by with other techniques, but I
> would use stdlib ordered dicts if they were available.
> I also prefer the term "ordered dict" to LinkedHashXXX.

You may notice the subject is LinkedHashXXX *equivalents* ;) There is no
way I would ever propose adding them with those names.

OTOH, "ordered set" and "ordered dict" implies different things to
different people - usually "sorted" rather than "the order things were
put in". Perhaps "temporally-ordered" ;)

BTW, just to clarify the semantics:

Set: Items are iterated over in the order that they are added. Adding an
item that compares equal to one that is already in the set does not
replace the item already in the set, and does not change the iteration
order. Removing an item, then re-adding it moves the item to the end of
the iteration order.

Dict: Keys are iterated over in the order that they are added. Setting a
value using a key that compares equal to one already in the dict
replaces the value, but not the key, and does not change the iteration
order. Removing a key (and value) then re-adding it moves the key to the
end of the iteration order.

Tim Delaney
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Jeff Bauer
Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Steven Bethard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>>  What use do you have for it other than filtering
>>  duplicates from a list while retaining order?
>
> If this were the only use case, you are right.  I cannot
> remember the use case I once had right now, and probably
> the code has been rewritten anyway.  But I assume use
> cases exist, otherwise there weren't so many recipes
> for the ordered dictionary.
I'm not specifically lobbying for its inclusion in
stdlib, but I often find an ordered dict useful when I
want both ordered and random access, e.g. situations:
  - database table fields/attributes
  - drop down field selectors
In both cases, I could get by with other techniques, but I
would use stdlib ordered dicts if they were available.
I also prefer the term "ordered dict" to LinkedHashXXX.
Jeff Bauer
Rubicon, Inc.
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Aahz
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> [Aahz]
>>
>> Gee, I just found out I could have used an OrderedDict today.  (We're
>> using a dict that we're now having to add an auxilliary list to to track
>> when keys are added.)  (This isn't particularly an argument in favor of
>> adding OrderedDict to stdlib, but it's another use case.  Each dict key
>> contains a dict value; the subkeys from later-added keys are supposed to
>> override earlier subkeys.  The original implementation relied on subkeys
>> being unique, but that doesn't work for our new business requirements.)
> 
> If I read the proposal correctly, order would be determined by when the
> key was first encountered.  Presumably, that would mean that the related
> value would also be the first encountered (not overridden by later-added
> keys as dictated by your business requirements).  

Hm  Guess this means we need a PEP!
-- 
Aahz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR
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RE: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Raymond Hettinger
[Aahz]
> Gee, I just found out I could have used an OrderedDict today.  (We're
> using a dict that we're now having to add an auxilliary list to to
track
> when keys are added.)  (This isn't particularly an argument in favor
of
> adding OrderedDict to stdlib, but it's another use case.  Each dict
key
> contains a dict value; the subkeys from later-added keys are supposed
to
> override earlier subkeys.  The original implementation relied on
subkeys
> being unique, but that doesn't work for our new business
requirements.)

If I read the proposal correctly, order would be determined by when the
key was first encountered.  Presumably, that would mean that the related
value would also be the first encountered (not overridden by later-added
keys as dictated by your business requirements).  


Raymond
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Aahz
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005, Tommy Burnette wrote:
>
> I'd say I'm +0.  fwiw- I've been using a locally-rolled OrderedDict
> implementation for the last 5-6 years in which insertion order is the
> only order respected.  I use it all over the place (in a code base of
> ~60k lines of python code).
> 
> so there's another use case for you.  bust as you say, easy to do
> yourself... 

Gee, I just found out I could have used an OrderedDict today.  (We're
using a dict that we're now having to add an auxilliary list to to track
when keys are added.)  (This isn't particularly an argument in favor of
adding OrderedDict to stdlib, but it's another use case.  Each dict key
contains a dict value; the subkeys from later-added keys are supposed to
override earlier subkeys.  The original implementation relied on subkeys
being unique, but that doesn't work for our new business requirements.)
-- 
Aahz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR
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Re: [Python-Dev] @deprecated (was: Useful thread project for 2.5?)

2005-03-09 Thread Guido van Rossum
> This is a recipe for disaster. Creating a new function from the old can have
> unwanted side effects, since you effectively change the object. For example,
> if someone is monkey patching this function, then the deprecation warning
> gets lost.

That's a rather extreme use case, and not one that IMO should block
the @deprecated decorator from being used. I hope that monkey patching
is rare enough that you shouldn't mind checking once a year of so if
the thing you're monkey-patching might have been deprecated (in which
case you shouldn't be monkey-patching it but instead rewrite your code
to avoid it altogether).

> In Zope 3's deprecation package, we have decided to put a special deprecation
> proxy around the module (instead of the function) and register a list of
> attribute names (note that it does not matter whether its a class, function
> or other type of object) that are deprecated. The advantage is that you get a
> deprecation warning just by looking up the object.

Yeah, but not everybody has Zope's proxying machinery.

I think you're overreacting.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Tommy Burnette

I'd say I'm +0.  fwiw- I've been using a locally-rolled OrderedDict
implementation for the last 5-6 years in which insertion order is the
only order respected.  I use it all over the place (in a code base of
~60k lines of python code).

so there's another use case for you.  bust as you say, easy to do
yourself... 

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?"Martin_v._L=F6wis"?= writes:
| Thomas Heller wrote:
| > I cannot understand why people are against adding it to stdlib (after
| > the name, the implementation, and the exact place have been decided).
| > It's certainly a useful data type, isn't it?
| 
| It depends on the precise semantics. You often want a dictionary where
| the keys come out in some order - but that is rarely the order in which
| they were added to the dictionary. Most frequently, you want the keys
| sorted, according to some criteria. If not that, I would assume that you
| typically have the order of keys determined before even filling the
| dictionary, in which case you can do
| 
| for k in keys_in_preferred_order:
|  v = hashtable[k]
|  process(k,v)
| 
| I remember having needed that once in the past 15 years (in Smalltalk
| at the time), so I wrote an OrderedDictionary for Smalltalk/V (which
| didn't have it). It took me an hour or so.
| 
| I don't recall what precisely it was that I needed it for, and I cannot
| think of any use case for the data type right now.
| 
| So I'm -0 on adding the data type: I have a vague feeling it is needed,
| but rarely, and I don't know precisely what for.
| 
| Regards,
| Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Eli Stevens (WG.c)
Steven Bethard wrote:
Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[About an ordered dictionary]
Well, that was basically the question I posed.  So far I've seen only
one use for it, and that one is better served by adding a function to
itertools.  What use do you have for it other than filtering
duplicates from a list while retaining order?
The primary use case I have deals with DB result sets*.  The ordering of 
the rows returned from a query is important, so keeping the iteration 
order is nice.  Most of the tables I deal with have keys of some kind, 
and being able to pull out a result row by key is also nice.  Granted, I 
rarely use /both/ at the same time, but it is nice to not have to 
specify how the result set will be used when I retrieve it.

To me, this seems to be the same concept as the config file parsing 
previously mentioned.

I don't feel qualified to have an opinion** about inclusion in the 
stdlib, much less vote.

relurkin'ly yrs,
Eli
[*] - In my case, it's actually coded in Java, for work.  There might be 
a reason that this problem isn't language-generic, but the 1.5 minutes I 
spent thinking about it were not illuminating.

[**] - Yet I have one anyway.  This kind of datatype seems one of those 
easy-to-get-half-right things that could benefit from a solid 
implementation.  It also doesn't strike me as controversial in terms of 
API or internal structure.
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Martin v. Löwis
John Williams wrote:
The other use case I have is for dealing with data where the iteration 
order doesn't matter to the program but it does matter to users.  For 
instance, consider the ConfigParser's write method.  Any ordering of 
values in the output is functionally equivalent, but the original data 
is likely to have come from a file that was arranged in some meaningful 
order, and it would be nice to preserve that order, especially if it can 
be done with no extra effort.
That is a good example, IMO. But then, in the specific case, the
dictionary for each section is created deeply inside ConfigParser,
with the lines
cursect = {'__name__': sectname}
self._sections[sectname] = cursect
So this uses a builtin dict, and there is no easy way to override it
for the application.
Of course, given your reasoning, ConfigParser *should* use an
OrderedDictionary (probably both for cursect and for self._sections),
in which case this would all be transparent to the application.
Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Aahz
On Thu, Mar 10, 2005, Donovan Baarda wrote:
>
> major releases, ie 2.x -> 3.0, are for things that can break existing code.
> They change the API so that things that run on 2.x may not work with 3.x.
> 
> minor releases, ie 2.2.x ->2.3.0, are for things that cannot break existing
> code. They can extend the API such that code for 2.3.x may not work on
> 2.2.x, but code that runs on 2.2.x must work on 2.3.x.
> 
> micro releases, ie 2.2.1 ->2.2.2, are for bug fixes only. There can be no
> changes to the API, so that all code that runs on 2.2.2 should work with
> 2.2.1, barring the bugs fixed.
> 
> The example you cited of adding bool was an extension to the API, and hence
> should have been a minor release, not a micro release.
> 
> I just read the PEP-6, and it doesn't seem to use this terminology, or make
> this distinction... does something else do this anywhere? I thought this
> approach was common knowledge...

Functionally speaking, Python has only major releases and micro
releases.  We don't have the resources to support minor releases.
-- 
Aahz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread John Williams
Steven Bethard wrote:
> Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> [About an ordered dictionary]
>
>
> Well, that was basically the question I posed.  So far I've seen only
> one use for it, and that one is better served by adding a function to
> itertools.  What use do you have for it other than filtering
> duplicates from a list while retaining order?
>
> Steve
Using a LinkedHashMap generally cuts down in the amount of apparent 
randomness in a program.  This is especially helpful when it comes time 
to debug a really complicated program by diffing log files, since it 
prevents slightly different maps from having wildly different iteration 
orders.  Often using a plain HashMap can introduce enough randomness to 
make two otherwise similar log files nearly impossible to compare.

The other use case I have is for dealing with data where the iteration 
order doesn't matter to the program but it does matter to users.  For 
instance, consider the ConfigParser's write method.  Any ordering of 
values in the output is functionally equivalent, but the original data 
is likely to have come from a file that was arranged in some meaningful 
order, and it would be nice to preserve that order, especially if it can 
be done with no extra effort.

--jw
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Donovan Baarda
G'day again,

From: "Michael Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> "Donovan Baarda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> >
> > Just my 2c;
> >
> > I don't mind new features in minor releases, provided they meet the
> > following two criteria;
> >
> > 1) Don't break the old API! The new features must be pure extensions
that in
> > no way change the old API. Any existing code should be un-effected in
any
> > way by the change.
> >
> > 2) The new features must be clearly documented as "New in version
X.Y.Z".
> > This way people using these features will know the minium Python version
> > required for their application.
>
> No no no!  The point of what Anthony is saying, as I read it, is that
> experience suggests it is exactly this sort of change that should be
> avoided.  Consider the case of Mac OS X 10.2 which came with Python
> 2.2.0: this was pretty broken anyway because of some apple snafus but
> it was made even more useless by the fact that people out in the wild
> were writing code for 2.2.1 and using True/False/bool.  Going from
> 2.x.y to 2.x.y+1 shouldn't break anything, going from 2.x.y+1 to 2.x.y
> shouldn't break anything that doesn't whack into a bug in 2.x.y -- and
> "not having bool" isn't a bug in this sense.

You missed the "minor releases" bit in my post.

major releases, ie 2.x -> 3.0, are for things that can break existing code.
They change the API so that things that run on 2.x may not work with 3.x.

minor releases, ie 2.2.x ->2.3.0, are for things that cannot break existing
code. They can extend the API such that code for 2.3.x may not work on
2.2.x, but code that runs on 2.2.x must work on 2.3.x.

micro releases, ie 2.2.1 ->2.2.2, are for bug fixes only. There can be no
changes to the API, so that all code that runs on 2.2.2 should work with
2.2.1, barring the bugs fixed.

The example you cited of adding bool was an extension to the API, and hence
should have been a minor release, not a micro release.

I just read the PEP-6, and it doesn't seem to use this terminology, or make
this distinction... does something else do this anywhere? I thought this
approach was common knowledge...


Donovan Baardahttp://minkirri.apana.org.au/~abo/


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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Martin v. Löwis
James Y Knight wrote:
I use ordered dictionaries for testing. With an ordered dict I can 
string compare the output of my program to what is expected. Without an 
ordered dict, I'd have to re-parse the output and order it, which would 
require some complicated code that's just as likely to be wrong as the 
code I'm trying to test.
I see. I would argue that you were better off if the test cases were 
sorted (according to some total, stable-across-releases, order), rather
than being ordered.

Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Martin v. Löwis
Thomas Heller wrote:
I cannot understand why people are against adding it to stdlib (after
the name, the implementation, and the exact place have been decided).
It's certainly a useful data type, isn't it?
It depends on the precise semantics. You often want a dictionary where
the keys come out in some order - but that is rarely the order in which
they were added to the dictionary. Most frequently, you want the keys
sorted, according to some criteria. If not that, I would assume that you
typically have the order of keys determined before even filling the
dictionary, in which case you can do
for k in keys_in_preferred_order:
v = hashtable[k]
process(k,v)
I remember having needed that once in the past 15 years (in Smalltalk
at the time), so I wrote an OrderedDictionary for Smalltalk/V (which
didn't have it). It took me an hour or so.
I don't recall what precisely it was that I needed it for, and I cannot
think of any use case for the data type right now.
So I'm -0 on adding the data type: I have a vague feeling it is needed,
but rarely, and I don't know precisely what for.
Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread James Y Knight
On Mar 9, 2005, at 4:19 PM, Thomas Heller wrote:
If this were the only use case, you are right.  I cannot remember the
use case I once had right now, and probably the code has been rewritten
anyway.  But I assume use cases exist, otherwise there weren't so many
recipes for the ordered dictionary.
I use ordered dictionaries for testing. With an ordered dict I can 
string compare the output of my program to what is expected. Without an 
ordered dict, I'd have to re-parse the output and order it, which would 
require some complicated code that's just as likely to be wrong as the 
code I'm trying to test.

James
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Steven Bethard
Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Steven Bethard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> >  What use do you have for it other than filtering
> > duplicates from a list while retaining order?
> 
> If this were the only use case, you are right.  I cannot remember the
> use case I once had right now, and probably the code has been rewritten
> anyway.  But I assume use cases exist, otherwise there weren't so many
> recipes for the ordered dictionary.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as suggesting that there weren't
other use cases for it.  I'm only asking for people who know these
other use cases to present them here.

At the moment, we have only one use case, and for that use case,
OrderedDict/OrderedSet isn't really the best solution.  (That's all my
code was intended to point out -- I don't really care if it makes it
into itertools or not.)  If people could present a few reasonable
problems where OrderedDict/OrderedSet really do provide the best
solutions, and then make the case that these use cases are reasonably
frequent, I think there would be much better support for adding such
types to the standard library.

Steve
-- 
You can wordify anything if you just verb it.
--- Bucky Katt, Get Fuzzy
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Thomas Heller
Steven Bethard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> [About an ordered dictionary]
> [snip] 
>> I cannot understand why people are against adding it to stdlib (after
>> the name, the implementation, and the exact place have been decided).
>> It's certainly a useful data type, isn't it?
>
> Well, that was basically the question I posed.  So far I've seen only
> one use for it, and that one is better served by adding a function to
> itertools.

Hm, removing duplicates from a list is an algorithm, not a data
structure.  And the code you posted (no offense intended) is, also imo,
faster written by an experienced programmer than located in some module.
OTOH, I see no problem adding it to itertools.

>  What use do you have for it other than filtering
> duplicates from a list while retaining order?

If this were the only use case, you are right.  I cannot remember the
use case I once had right now, and probably the code has been rewritten
anyway.  But I assume use cases exist, otherwise there weren't so many
recipes for the ordered dictionary.

Thomas

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Re: [Python-Dev] @deprecated (was: Useful thread project for 2.5?)

2005-03-09 Thread Brett C.
Stephan Richter wrote:
[SNIP - Michael's deprecated decorator]
This is a recipe for disaster. Creating a new function from the old can have 
unwanted side effects, since you effectively change the object. For example, 
if someone is monkey patching this function, then the deprecation warning 
gets lost. 

That's the idiom for decorators.  They will almost always be wrappers for other 
functions by returning a new function that uses closures to access the 
original.  Besides, you no longer have the original function directly available 
in the global namespace of the module since the name of the decorated function 
gets rebound before you have a chance to see the original function.  So there 
really is no issue with the function not being the exact same since you can't 
really see it undecorated without a lot of effort; no real change of the object 
that the user can ever tell.

And as for monkey-patching breaking something, that's there fault for 
monkey-patching.  Python doesn't prevent you from doing something stupid which 
why it is the language four out of five adults choose to code in (the fifth 
one, the hold-out, just can't let go of Java because he/she is a recent college 
grad and it is all they have ever known; they also think that EAFP is "evil"  =).

-Brett
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Steven Bethard
Thomas Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [About an ordered dictionary]
[snip] 
> I cannot understand why people are against adding it to stdlib (after
> the name, the implementation, and the exact place have been decided).
> It's certainly a useful data type, isn't it?

Well, that was basically the question I posed.  So far I've seen only
one use for it, and that one is better served by adding a function to
itertools.  What use do you have for it other than filtering
duplicates from a list while retaining order?

Steve
-- 
You can wordify anything if you just verb it.
--- Bucky Katt, Get Fuzzy
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Thomas Heller
[About an ordered dictionary]

> Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy) wrote:

>> Does anyone else think it would be worthwhile adding these to
>> collections, or should I just make a cookbook entry?

Greg Ward <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> +1 on a cookbook entry.  +0 on adding to stdlib.

"Martin v. Löwis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> -0 for the addition to the collections module, -1 on the specific
> name.

I cannot understand why people are against adding it to stdlib (after
the name, the implementation, and the exact place have been decided).
It's certainly a useful data type, isn't it?

Thomas

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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Glyph Lefkowitz
Guido van Rossum wrote:
On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 10:38:12 -0500, Jim Fulton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
+1 (wish * could say +sys.maxint).

Anthony gets my +1 too, which then adds up to sys.maxint. :-)
+1!
I hope this mailing list runs on python2.2+, or the discussion has to 
stop now due to OverflowError...
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Re: [Python-Dev] LinkedHashSet/LinkedHashMap equivalents

2005-03-09 Thread Martin v. Löwis
Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy) wrote:
Does anyone else think it would be worthwhile adding these to
collections, or should I just make a cookbook entry?
-0 for the addition to the collections module, -1 on the specific
name.
Java made a *big* mistake by putting "Hash" into the names of these
things. From the outside, it is primarily a Dictionary; only when
you look closer you see that this specific dictionary requires
hashable keys (as opposed to, say, the C++ std::map, which requires
sortable keys).
So consequently, the data type should be called OrderedDictionary,
and its cookbook recipe is
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/107747
Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] unicode inconsistency?

2005-03-09 Thread M.-A. Lemburg
Neil Schemenauer wrote:
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 11:10:59AM +0100, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
The patch implements the PyObjbect_Text() idea (an API that
returns a basestring instance, ie. string or unicode) and
then uses this in '%s' (the string version) to properly propogate
to u'%s' (the unicode version).
Maybe we should also expose the C API as suggested in the patch,
e.g. as text(obj).

Perhaps the right thing to do is introduce a new format code that
means insert text(obj) instead of str(obj), e.g %t.  If we do that
though then we should make "'%s' % u'xyz'" return a string instead of
a unicode object.  I suspect that would break a lot of code.
It would result in lots of UnicodeErrors due to failing
conversion of the Unicode string to a string. Plus it
would break with the general rule of always coercing to
Unicode (see below) and lose us the ability to write
polymorphic code.
OTOH, having %s mean text(obj) instead of str(obj) may work just
fine.  People who want it to mean str() generally don't have any
unicode strings floating around so text() has the same effect.
People who are using unicode probably would find text() to be more
useful behavior.  I think that's why someone hacked PyString_Format
to sometimes return unicode strings.
That wasn't a hack: it's part of the Unicode integration logic
which always coerces to Unicode if strings and Unicode meet. In
the above case a string format string meets a Unicode object as
argument which then results in a Unicode object to be returned.
Regarding the use of  __str__, to return a unicode object: we could
introduce a new slot (e.g. __text__) instead.  However, I can't see
any advantage to that.  If someone really wants a str object then
they call str() or PyObject_Str().
Right.
--
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com
Professional Python Services directly from the Source  (#1, Mar 09 2005)
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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Michael Hudson
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> My google-fu returned, and I found the piece I was looking for earlier.
> This discusses (from an internal Sun perspective) some of the problems
> with Java. They make quite a big deal about the problem of changing
> code across minor releases. I recall (re)reading this at some point and it
> helped me clarify some ideas floating around in my head.
>
> http://www.internalmemos.com/memos/memodetails.php?memo_id=1321

Thanks for posting that, it was interesting.

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
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 personal requirements for nutrition and pleasure.
ARTHUR:  Ah.  So I'm a masochist on a diet am I?
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Re: [Python-Dev] scrambling python in a microsoft .exe container

2005-03-09 Thread Aahz
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005, Niklas Fischer wrote:
> 
> i lost the fight against google to find a wrapper/scrambler for python - 
> boxed in an exe file.
> even the mandatory '-monty' string didn t help to find any tools. 
> 
> anyone got experience with such a tool? 

It's not clear what you're looking for, but it's pretty clear that
python-dev is the wrong place to ask.  Please switch to comp.lang.python.
Thanks.  (python-dev should only be used for people working on Python
releases.)
-- 
Aahz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib NEWS.txt, 1.49.2.3, 1.49.2.4 idlever.py, 1.22.2.1, 1.22.2.2

2005-03-09 Thread Fred L. Drake, Jr.
On Wednesday 09 March 2005 12:06, Anthony Baxter wrote:
 > No - Py2.4 shipped with idle 1.1. I must've updated it to 1.1.1 sometime
 > after the 2.4 release (I vaguely recall doing this).

Ah, ok.  I guess I should have looked.


  -Fred

-- 
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Re: [Python-Dev] os.access and Unicode

2005-03-09 Thread Martin v. Löwis
Brett C. wrote:
If there was no other way to get os.access-like functionality, I would 
say it should be backported.  But since there are other ways to figure 
out everything that os.access can tell you
I believe this is not really true, atleast not on Windows, and perhaps
not in certain NFS cases, either. If there are ACLs on the file, access
will consider them (or atleast it should), but no other method will.
Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python-Dev] unicode inconsistency?

2005-03-09 Thread Neil Schemenauer
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 11:10:59AM +0100, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> The patch implements the PyObjbect_Text() idea (an API that
> returns a basestring instance, ie. string or unicode) and
> then uses this in '%s' (the string version) to properly propogate
> to u'%s' (the unicode version).
> 
> Maybe we should also expose the C API as suggested in the patch,
> e.g. as text(obj).

Perhaps the right thing to do is introduce a new format code that
means insert text(obj) instead of str(obj), e.g %t.  If we do that
though then we should make "'%s' % u'xyz'" return a string instead of
a unicode object.  I suspect that would break a lot of code.

OTOH, having %s mean text(obj) instead of str(obj) may work just
fine.  People who want it to mean str() generally don't have any
unicode strings floating around so text() has the same effect.
People who are using unicode probably would find text() to be more
useful behavior.  I think that's why someone hacked PyString_Format
to sometimes return unicode strings.

Regarding the use of  __str__, to return a unicode object: we could
introduce a new slot (e.g. __text__) instead.  However, I can't see
any advantage to that.  If someone really wants a str object then
they call str() or PyObject_Str().

  Neil
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Bill Janssen
Hear, hear!

> Going from
> 2.x.y to 2.x.y+1 shouldn't break anything, going from 2.x.y+1 to 2.x.y
> shouldn't break anything that doesn't whack into a bug in 2.x.y -- and
> "not having bool" isn't a bug in this sense.

Micro releases are all about bug fixes.  Every micro release of the
same minor release should be compatible with every other, except for
bugs and fixes to those bugs.

Bill
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib NEWS.txt, 1.49.2.3, 1.49.2.4 idlever.py, 1.22.2.1, 1.22.2.2

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
On Thursday 10 March 2005 03:48, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
>  > RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py,v
>  > -IDLE_VERSION = "1.1.1"
>  > +IDLE_VERSION = "1.1.1c1"
>
> Shouldn't this progress from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2c1?  Otherwise it's moving
> backward.

No - Py2.4 shipped with idle 1.1. I must've updated it to 1.1.1 sometime
after the 2.4 release (I vaguely recall doing this).


-- 
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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[Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib NEWS.txt, 1.49.2.3, 1.49.2.4 idlever.py, 1.22.2.1, 1.22.2.2

2005-03-09 Thread Fred L. Drake, Jr.
On Wednesday 09 March 2005 06:54, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 > RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt,v
...
 > -What's New in IDLE 1.1.1?
 > -===
 > +What's New in IDLE 1.1.1c1?
...
 > RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py,v
 > -IDLE_VERSION = "1.1.1"
 > +IDLE_VERSION = "1.1.1c1"

Shouldn't this progress from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2c1?  Otherwise it's moving 
backward.


  -Fred

-- 
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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
My google-fu returned, and I found the piece I was looking for earlier.
This discusses (from an internal Sun perspective) some of the problems
with Java. They make quite a big deal about the problem of changing
code across minor releases. I recall (re)reading this at some point and it
helped me clarify some ideas floating around in my head.

http://www.internalmemos.com/memos/memodetails.php?memo_id=1321

On Thursday 10 March 2005 03:01, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> For those who only remember bool(), Python 1.5.2 was probably the
> worst offender here (it had nothing to do with 1.5.1). Mea culpa
> etcetera.

That was a heck of a long time ago, and Python was a heck of a lot
younger then. Hell, I can still remember the 
interpreter-prints-all-return-values-to-stdout being turned off sometime 
during the 0.9.x series (best minor-release-change ever!). 

And while the True/False issue was a complete pain, it at least serves 
as a good example (in the 
http://www.despair.com/demotivators/mis24x30prin.html
sense of the word )

Anthony
-- 
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It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Guido van Rossum
On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 10:38:12 -0500, Jim Fulton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> +1 (wish * could say +sys.maxint).

Anthony gets my +1 too, which then adds up to sys.maxint. :-)

> To emphasize:
> 
> - We want people to update to bug fix releases quickly. For people
>to do that, they need to know the risk of breakage is low.  Reducing the
>scope of the release is important for that.
> 
> - Python has gotten much better at this than it used to be.  I remember the
>days when major features in 3rd-dot releases caused major headaches for us.

For those who only remember bool(), Python 1.5.2 was probably the
worst offender here (it had nothing to do with 1.5.1). Mea culpa
etcetera.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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[Python-Dev] scrambling python in a microsoft .exe container

2005-03-09 Thread Niklas Fischer
hi all! 

i lost the fight against google to find a wrapper/scrambler for python - 
boxed in an exe file.
even the mandatory '-monty' string didn t help to find any tools. 

anyone got experience with such a tool? 

thanks for any hint. 

greets, Nik
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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Jim Fulton
+1 (wish * could say +sys.maxint).
To emphasize:
- We want people to update to bug fix releases quickly. For people
  to do that, they need to know the risk of breakage is low.  Reducing the
  scope of the release is important for that.
- Python has gotten much better at this than it used to be.  I remember the
  days when major features in 3rd-dot releases caused major headaches for us.
  I think that made Python look bad.
Jim
Anthony Baxter wrote:
So it's only fair that I write down my rationale for why I'm being anal
about the no-new-features approach. Comments are more than welcome -
ideally, after discussion, I'll put some more words in the bugfix PEP.
Goal 1: When we cut a bugfix release, people will upgrade to it.
  - This helps the users (they have bugs fixed)
  - This helps us (python-dev) because people won't be logging
bugs against already-fixed-bugs.
  - This makes us (Python) look good, because people using 
Python have the most bug-free experience possible.

Goal 2: Packagers of Python will package up releases of Python
that are as close to the "official" release as possible.
  - This, to me, is a huge win. If we don't have to worry about 
whether someone is running 2.4.1, or DistroFoo's version of 
2.4.1 with a couple of backported fixes from 2.4.2, or some 
other horrible frankenstein's monster of a release, it makes 
our lives much easier. (This is also why I've been on a bit of
a stomping exercise to attempt to get distros that broke Python
into pieces to stop doing this (notably, Debian/Ubuntu's distutils-
in-python-devel pain))
  - And yes, we're always going to have the problem of some distros
stuck on old Python releases (Redhat -> Python 1.5.2, Debian stable
-> Python 2.1, &c) but we can hopefully encourage them to at least 
roll out the latest bugfix version of whatever version they're stuck on.

Goal 3: Good PR.
  - I've read a disturbing amount of words about other
languages (*cough*Java*cough*) that have no sanity about
minor and major releases. This seems to piss people off a
great deal. One of Python's selling points is that we're very
cautious and a suitable choice for grownups to use in business.
  - This is good for us (Python community) because it makes it
less likely we'll be stuck in a job where we're forced to code 
Perl, or C++, or Java, or some other horrible fate. It also boosts
the size of the community, meaning that there will be more 
volunteers to work on Python (hurrah!)

Goal 4: Try and prevent something like
try:
  True, False
except NameError:
  True, False = 1, 0
from ever ever happening again. 
  - This, I hope, needs no further explanation 

Anthony

--
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Re: [Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Barry Warsaw
On Wed, 2005-03-09 at 07:17, Anthony Baxter wrote:
> So it's only fair that I write down my rationale for why I'm being anal
> about the no-new-features approach. Comments are more than welcome -
> ideally, after discussion, I'll put some more words in the bugfix PEP.

I applaud your strictness Anthony (I was going to use a different phrase
using some words from your original message, but then I thought better
of that. :).

I think we learned our lesson from the 2.2 True/False fiasco.

It's a natural instinct to want to get those new features in earlier
than the minor release lifecycle, but resisting that temptation
demonstrates our maturity as a community, IMO.  Having to wait for those
new features in the mainline Python releases is the cost of our
"batteries included" approach.  If the users of a package want a shorter
lifecycle, then the package maintainer will just have to make
independent releases, sync'ing up with Python development in the
latter's trunk.  I've had to do this occasionally with the email
package, for example. 

-Barry



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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
On Wednesday 09 March 2005 23:53, Michael Hudson wrote:
> No no no!  The point of what Anthony is saying, as I read it, 

Your reading of my message is correct. 

> is that 
> experience suggests it is exactly this sort of change that should be
> avoided.  Consider the case of Mac OS X 10.2 which came with Python
> 2.2.0: this was pretty broken anyway because of some apple snafus but
> it was made even more useless by the fact that people out in the wild
> were writing code for 2.2.1 and using True/False/bool.  Going from
> 2.x.y to 2.x.y+1 shouldn't break anything, going from 2.x.y+1 to 2.x.y
> shouldn't break anything that doesn't whack into a bug in 2.x.y -- and
> "not having bool" isn't a bug in this sense.

This is exactly right, and, assuming people are in agreement, I plan to
add text to this effect to PEP 6. One of the slightly negative side effects
of Python's growth is that a lot of people depend on it now, and I feel it's
in everyone's interests to try and make the best releases I can. 

We now do more regular bugfix releases - once every 6 months is the 
goal. Ideally, people shouldn't be _forced_ to upgrade (although obviously
I'd prefer if they did ). Assuming that none of the bugs fixed are
actually biting you, you should be able to stick with that version of 2.4.0
that's rolled out across hundreds of machines, and not have to worry that
someone's writing code against some 2.4.2-specific features. 

Or, to put it more concisely -- if we allow new features (however minor)
in bugfix releases, we're effectively shipping a "new" Python release
every 6 months. This is insane. 

I want to have my cake and eat it too - I want the bugs fixed, but I don't
want to have to mess about with worrying about new features each time
I need to roll out a new release (in my job).

[Disclaimer: It should be obvious here that I'm speaking for myself, and
in doing so, I'm wearing a number of different hats - while I'm currently the
guy who does the cvs-tag-and-release, I'm also an author of a whole pile
of Python software, some open source, some closed (for work). In addition,
I need to think about deployment and rollout strategies for new code and 
new systems in my job. I'm trying to optimise the release process to suit
all these hats, and at the same time thinking about what I've been told by
other people (distro vendors, people running _very_ large sets of machines
with Python software)]

In an attempt to stir up some discussion - if you have a reason _for_ 
allowing new features in a minor release, suggest it! I'm genuinely interested
in having this discussion and working out the best solution...

Anthony

-- 
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Aahz
On Wed, Mar 09, 2005, Michael Hudson wrote:
>
> No no no!  The point of what Anthony is saying, as I read it, is that
> experience suggests it is exactly this sort of change that should be
> avoided.  Consider the case of Mac OS X 10.2 which came with Python
> 2.2.0: this was pretty broken anyway because of some apple snafus but
> it was made even more useless by the fact that people out in the wild
> were writing code for 2.2.1 and using True/False/bool.  Going from
> 2.x.y to 2.x.y+1 shouldn't break anything, going from 2.x.y+1 to 2.x.y
> shouldn't break anything that doesn't whack into a bug in 2.x.y -- and
> "not having bool" isn't a bug in this sense.

Yes, exactly.  That's why I wrote PEP 6 in the first place, and
experience has only led to tightening things up further.  The specific
example of 2.2.1 and bool is even worse than you're noting, because
2.3's bool works a bit differently, so you have to actually code for
three different problems in two major versions.  Sehr schlecht.
-- 
Aahz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR
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Re: [Python-Dev] @deprecated (was: Useful thread project for 2.5?)

2005-03-09 Thread Stephan Richter
On Tuesday 08 March 2005 18:05, Jim Jewett wrote:
>     ... compiler recognition of "@deprecated" in doc comments.
>
> Michael Chermside suggested:
>
>     = code =
>     import warnings
>
>     def deprecated(func):
>         """This is a decorator which can be used to mark functions
>         as deprecated. It will result in a warning being emmitted
>         when the function is used."""
>         def newFunc(*args, **kwargs):
>             warnings.warn("Call to deprecated function.")
>             return func(*args, **kwargs)
>         return newFunc
>
>     = example =
> ...
>     UserWarning: Call to deprecated function.

This is a recipe for disaster. Creating a new function from the old can have 
unwanted side effects, since you effectively change the object. For example, 
if someone is monkey patching this function, then the deprecation warning 
gets lost. 

In Zope 3's deprecation package, we have decided to put a special deprecation 
proxy around the module (instead of the function) and register a list of 
attribute names (note that it does not matter whether its a class, function 
or other type of object) that are deprecated. The advantage is that you get a 
deprecation warning just by looking up the object.

See: http://svn.zope.org/Zope3/trunk/src/zope/deprecation/

Disclaimer: This code is a bit experimental and might not be the best 
solution. It is currently used in the trunk and does a pretty good job, 
though.

Regards,
Stephan
-- 
Stephan Richter
CBU Physics & Chemistry (B.S.) / Tufts Physics (Ph.D. student)
Web2k - Web Software Design, Development and Training
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RE: [Python-Dev] Re: @deprecated

2005-03-09 Thread Michael Chermside
[I followed Greg's suggestion and proposed a "deprecated" decorator.]

Raymond writes:
> Decorators like this should preserve information about the underlying
> function

Of course! The version I posted was intended to illustrate the idea, not
to be a clean implementation. A long time ago, I proposed a
decorator-maker-decorator (see "Creating Well-Behaved Decorators"
in http://www.python.org/moin/PythonDecoratorLibrary), and I still think
it's probably a wise approach since it's easy for people to be careless
and forget to preserve these sorts of features.

Jim Jewett writes:
> I agree that it should go in the cookbook, but I think you should
> set the category to a DeprecationWarning and give the offending
> function's name.

I had wondered about that, but wasn't familiar with how people actually
use categories. DeprecationWarning certainly sounds right, or is there
some reason why I should use a custom subclass of DeprecationWarning?

Michael Hudson and Irmen point out:
> One difference: I imagine (hope!) the java compiler would complain if
> the deprecated function is referenced, whereas the python version only
> complains if it is called...

True enough. And java doesn't complain at all if the deprecated function
is invoked via reflection. It's a fundamental difference in style between
the two languages: Python barely even HAS a "compile phase", and Python
programs tend to be far more dynamic than Java.

-- Michael Chermside
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: @deprecated

2005-03-09 Thread Michael Hudson
"Irmen de Jong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> mwh wrote:
>
>
>> One difference: I imagine (hope!) the java compiler would complain if
>> the deprecated function is referenced, whereas the python version only
>> complains if it is called...
>
> The java compiler actually already produces deprecation warnings
> during the *compilation phase* (when used with the -deprecation option).
> During runtime, no warnings are produced.

Yeah, that's what I meant to say, even if it wasn't what I said :)

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  LINTILLA:  You could take some evening classes.
ARTHUR:  What, here?
  LINTILLA:  Yes, I've got a bottle of them.  Little pink ones.
   -- The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 12
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[Python-Dev] Re: No new features

2005-03-09 Thread Michael Hudson
"Donovan Baarda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>
> Just my 2c;
>
> I don't mind new features in minor releases, provided they meet the
> following two criteria;
>
> 1) Don't break the old API! The new features must be pure extensions that in
> no way change the old API. Any existing code should be un-effected in any
> way by the change.
>
> 2) The new features must be clearly documented as "New in version X.Y.Z".
> This way people using these features will know the minium Python version
> required for their application.

No no no!  The point of what Anthony is saying, as I read it, is that
experience suggests it is exactly this sort of change that should be
avoided.  Consider the case of Mac OS X 10.2 which came with Python
2.2.0: this was pretty broken anyway because of some apple snafus but
it was made even more useless by the fact that people out in the wild
were writing code for 2.2.1 and using True/False/bool.  Going from
2.x.y to 2.x.y+1 shouldn't break anything, going from 2.x.y+1 to 2.x.y
shouldn't break anything that doesn't whack into a bug in 2.x.y -- and
"not having bool" isn't a bug in this sense.

My 2p.

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  Well, you pretty much need Microsoft stuff to get misbehaviours
  bad enough to actually tear the time-space continuum.  Luckily 
  for you, MS Internet Explorer is available for Solaris.
  -- Calle Dybedahl, alt.sysadmin.recovery
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Re: [Python-Dev] Re: @deprecated

2005-03-09 Thread Irmen de Jong
mwh wrote:


> One difference: I imagine (hope!) the java compiler would complain if
> the deprecated function is referenced, whereas the python version only
> complains if it is called...

The java compiler actually already produces deprecation warnings
during the *compilation phase* (when used with the -deprecation option).
During runtime, no warnings are produced.

Grtz, Irmen.

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Re: No new features (was Re: [Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins]python/dist/src/Modules ossaudiodev.c, 1.35, 1.36)

2005-03-09 Thread Donovan Baarda
G'day,

From: "Anthony Baxter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> On Wednesday 09 March 2005 12:21, Greg Ward wrote:
> > On 09 March 2005, Anthony Baxter said (privately):
> > > Thanks! I really want to keep the no-new-features thing going for
> > > as long as possible, pending any AoG (Acts of Guido), of course.
[...]
> Initially, I was inclined to be much less anal about the no-new-features
> thing. But since doing it, I've had a quite large number of people tell me
how
> much they appreciate this approach -  vendors, large companies with huge
> installed bases of Python, and also from people releasing software written
> in Python.  Very few people offer the counter argument as a general case -
> with the obvious exception that everyone has their "just this one little
> backported feature, plase!" (I'm the same - there's been times where
> I've had new features I'd have loved to see in a bugfix release, just so I
> could use them sooner).

Just my 2c;

I don't mind new features in minor releases, provided they meet the
following two criteria;

1) Don't break the old API! The new features must be pure extensions that in
no way change the old API. Any existing code should be un-effected in any
way by the change.

2) The new features must be clearly documented as "New in version X.Y.Z".
This way people using these features will know the minium Python version
required for their application.

Any change that breaks rule 1) must be delayed until a major release. Any
change that breaks rule 2) is a documentation bug that needs fixing.


Donovan Baardahttp://minkirri.apana.org.au/~abo/


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[Python-Dev] rationale for the no-new-features approach

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
So it's only fair that I write down my rationale for why I'm being anal
about the no-new-features approach. Comments are more than welcome -
ideally, after discussion, I'll put some more words in the bugfix PEP.

Goal 1: When we cut a bugfix release, people will upgrade to it.
  - This helps the users (they have bugs fixed)
  - This helps us (python-dev) because people won't be logging
bugs against already-fixed-bugs.
  - This makes us (Python) look good, because people using 
Python have the most bug-free experience possible.

Goal 2: Packagers of Python will package up releases of Python
that are as close to the "official" release as possible.
  - This, to me, is a huge win. If we don't have to worry about 
whether someone is running 2.4.1, or DistroFoo's version of 
2.4.1 with a couple of backported fixes from 2.4.2, or some 
other horrible frankenstein's monster of a release, it makes 
our lives much easier. (This is also why I've been on a bit of
a stomping exercise to attempt to get distros that broke Python
into pieces to stop doing this (notably, Debian/Ubuntu's distutils-
in-python-devel pain))
  - And yes, we're always going to have the problem of some distros
stuck on old Python releases (Redhat -> Python 1.5.2, Debian stable
-> Python 2.1, &c) but we can hopefully encourage them to at least 
roll out the latest bugfix version of whatever version they're stuck on.

Goal 3: Good PR.
  - I've read a disturbing amount of words about other
languages (*cough*Java*cough*) that have no sanity about
minor and major releases. This seems to piss people off a
great deal. One of Python's selling points is that we're very
cautious and a suitable choice for grownups to use in business.
  - This is good for us (Python community) because it makes it
less likely we'll be stuck in a job where we're forced to code 
Perl, or C++, or Java, or some other horrible fate. It also boosts
the size of the community, meaning that there will be more 
volunteers to work on Python (hurrah!)

Goal 4: Try and prevent something like
try:
  True, False
except NameError:
  True, False = 1, 0
from ever ever happening again. 
  - This, I hope, needs no further explanation 

Anthony

-- 
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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[Python-Dev] BRANCH FREEZE for 2.4.1rc1, 0000 UTC, 2005-03-10

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
So we're cutting 2.4.1c1 in about 12 hours time. Please leave the branch alone 
from  UTC (that's 8pm US Eastern, unless my timezones are all screwed 
up). Once the release candidate is done, we'll have a week to shake out any 
embarrassing bugs, and then a 2.4.1 final. Please be _extraordinarily_ 
conservative with checkins to the release24-maint branch until 2.4.1 final is
out. If in doubt, feel free to email me, or contact  on any one of AIM:
anthonyatekit, jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED], or IRC: #python-dev on 
Freenode.

Anthony
-- 
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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Re: No new features (was Re: [Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Modules ossaudiodev.c, 1.35, 1.36)

2005-03-09 Thread Anthony Baxter
On Wednesday 09 March 2005 12:21, Greg Ward wrote:
> On 09 March 2005, Anthony Baxter said (privately):
> > Thanks! I really want to keep the no-new-features thing going for
> > as long as possible, pending any AoG (Acts of Guido), of course.
>
> Grumble.  How do you feel about upgrading optparse to sync with Optik
> 1.5.1?  I'm a bit embarassed that Python 2.4's optparse has __version__
> == "1.5a2" because I didn't release Optik 1.5 in time.

The version string update I don't see being a problem. 

> And yes, there were some tiny new features in 1.5 and a few more coming
> in 1.5.1:
>
>   * SF patch #870807: allow users to specify integer option arguments
> in hexadecimal, octal, or binary with leading "0x", "0", or "0b"
> (1.5 final).

Again, this is a new feature, and having it behave differently in 2.4.1 to
2.4 could be confusing - but I'm not absolutely against this.

>   * SF feature #1050184: add 'append_const' action (patch by
> Andrea 'fwyzard' Bocci) (1.5 final).

New feature?

>   * Keep going if importing gettext fails (so optparse can be used
> in the Python build process) (1.5 final).

Bug fix.

>   * Fix so the 'merge' script works again (bugs spotted, and mostly
> fixed, by Andrea 'fwyzard' Bocci). (1.5.1)

Bug fix.

>   * SF bug #1145594: add 'finish()' method to OptionParser so
> applications can explicitly break reference cycles, making life
> easier for Python's garbage collector. (1.5.1)

Is this purely an internal method, or something that people would
use as part of the API? If it's an API change, it shouldn't be included.

>   * SF feature #988126: add 'epilog' attribute to OptionParser
> (and constructor arg): paragraph of text to print after the
> main option help. (1.5.1)

API change.

>   * Corrected French translation (po/optik/fr.po) (Laurent Laporte).
> (1.5.1)

Bug fix.

> Every one of these is useful to someone, and none of them are even
> remotely destabilizing.  But they all add functionality that would be
> present in 2.4.1 and not in 2.4.  That doesn't bother me in the
> slightest, but I guess it bothers some people.

Initially, I was inclined to be much less anal about the no-new-features 
thing. But since doing it, I've had a quite large number of people tell me how
much they appreciate this approach -  vendors, large companies with huge
installed bases of Python, and also from people releasing software written 
in Python.  Very few people offer the counter argument as a general case -
with the obvious exception that everyone has their "just this one little
backported feature, plase!" (I'm the same - there's been times where 
I've had new features I'd have loved to see in a bugfix release, just so I
could use them sooner).

> I'd like to check this in for 2.4.1.  But I won't if anyone says "don't
> do it".  Nor will I if no one else says "do it".

Well, 2.4.1rc1 is out in about 12 hours time. If you want to check in the
bugfixes before then, please feel free. If you don't want to apply bits and
pieces, then don't worry about it. I don't want anything but critical fixes
landing between 2.4.1rc1 and 2.4.1 final. Remember that 2.4.2 will turn
up inevitably, it's not like this is the last release between now and 2.5...

I should also add that the above is really just policy as it's evolved - if
people want to discuss this (am I being too strict?) I'm happy to talk 
about it. I'd even suggest a BOF at PyCon, except I won't be there :-(
 
-- 
Anthony Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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Re: [Python-Dev] unicode inconsistency?

2005-03-09 Thread M.-A. Lemburg
Neil Schemenauer wrote:
On Sat, Apr 04, 1998 at 07:04:02AM +, Tim Peters wrote:
[Martin v. L?wis]
I can't see any harm by supporting this operation also if __str__ returns
a Unicode object.
It doesn't sound like a good idea to me, at least in part because it
would be darned messy to implement short of saying "OK, we don't give
a rip anymore about what type of objects PyObject_{Str,Repr} return",

It's about 10 lines of code.  See http://python.org/sf/1159501 .
The patch implements the PyObjbect_Text() idea (an API that
returns a basestring instance, ie. string or unicode) and
then uses this in '%s' (the string version) to properly propogate
to u'%s' (the unicode version).
Maybe we should also expose the C API as suggested in the patch,
e.g. as text(obj).
--
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com
Professional Python Services directly from the Source  (#1, Mar 09 2005)
>>> Python/Zope Consulting and Support ...http://www.egenix.com/
>>> mxODBC.Zope.Database.Adapter ... http://zope.egenix.com/
>>> mxODBC, mxDateTime, mxTextTools ...http://python.egenix.com/

::: Try mxODBC.Zope.DA for Windows,Linux,Solaris,FreeBSD for free ! 
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[Python-Dev] Re: @deprecated

2005-03-09 Thread Michael Hudson
Greg Ward <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> On 08 March 2005, Michael Chermside said:
>> Greg writes:
>> > This is one of my top two Java features [1].
>>   ...
>> > [1] The other is compiler recognition of "@deprecated" in doc comments.
>> 
>> Hmm... what a good idea! Let's see... what exactly does "@deprecated" DO in
>> Java? Why it causes the compiler to emit a warning if you use the function in
>> question. Not a bad idea.
>
> Isn't it, though?
>
>> Amusingly enough, the syntax is even the same in
>> Python:
> [...code omitted...]
>
> Cl.  So simple, and yet so powerful.  One might even call it Pythonic!

One difference: I imagine (hope!) the java compiler would complain if
the deprecated function is referenced, whereas the python version only
complains if it is called...

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  ROOSTA:  Ever since you arrived on this planet last night you've
   been going round telling people that you're Zaphod
   Beeblebrox, but that they're not to tell anyone else.
-- The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 7
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