python-dev Summary for 2004-10-01 through 2004-10-15

This is a summary of traffic on the python-dev mailing list from October 01, 2004 through October 15, 2004. It is intended to inform the wider Python community of on-going developments on the list. To comment on anything mentioned here, just post to comp.lang.python (or email python-list at python dot org which is a gateway to the newsgroup) with a subject line mentioning what you are discussing. All python-dev members are interested in seeing ideas discussed by the community, so don't hesitate to take a stance on something. And if all of this really interests you then get involved and join python-dev!

This is the fiftieth summary written by Brett Cannon (Time for my summary mid-life crisis).

To contact me, please send email to brett at python.org ; I do not have the time to keep up on comp.lang.python and thus do not always catch follow-ups posted there.

All summaries are archived at http://www.python.org/dev/summary/ .

Please note that this summary is written using reStructuredText which can be found at http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html . Any unfamiliar punctuation is probably markup for reST (otherwise it is probably regular expression syntax or a typo =); you can safely ignore it, although I suggest learning reST; it's simple and is accepted for PEP markup and gives some perks for the HTML output. Also, because of the wonders of programs that like to reformat text, I cannot guarantee you will be able to run the text version of this summary through Docutils as-is unless it is from the original text file.

The in-development version of the documentation for Python can be found at http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ and should be used when looking up any documentation on new code; otherwise use the current documentation as found at http://docs.python.org/ . PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) are located at http://www.python.org/peps/ . To view files in the Python CVS online, go to http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/ . Reported bugs and suggested patches can be found at the SourceForge project page.

The Python Software Foundation is the non-profit organization that holds the intellectual property for Python. It also tries to forward the development and use of Python. But the PSF cannot do this without donations. You can make a donation at http://python.org/psf/donations.html . Every penny helps so even a small donation (you can donate through PayPal or by check) helps.

Summary Announcements

Sorry for the very late and short summary but I am in extreme crunch mode right now with school (partially thanks to a research paper comparing Python to Java) and preparing for applications to doctorate programs (any recommendations for schools with a good CS dept. and language research would be appreciated). Don't expect things to pick up again until the quarter is over (Dec. 9th is my last final).

Summaries

New module: subprocess

Peter Ästrand wrote PEP 324 to come up with a platform-independent way to create processes. Originally entitled popen5, it has now been added to the stdlib as subprocess.

Contributing threads:
Python 2.4.b1 is out

Python 2.4b1 has been released. As usual please download it, run the test suite, and test it with your own code.

Contributing threads:
We need a replacement for ConfigParser

David Goodger brought forward two patches for ConfigParser he wanted to apply. This quickly brought up the point that ConfigParser's API is not exactly optimal. So the decision was made to field new designs. If you happen to have your own code lying around that handles .ini files nicely then get it cleaned up and consider proposing at as a replacement.

Some ideas have already been floated on the list but will have to wait for the next summary for mention/discussion.

Contributing threads:

Skipped Threads

  • Guidelines for Logging Usage

  • Status of undocumented distutils features in 2.4?

  • Toward Python's future article

  • test_pep263.py is "-kb" in CVS

  • python/dist/src/Doc/whatsnew whatsnew24.tex, 1.108, 1.109

  • Python on Windows 64bits?

  • About the Wise installer on Windows

  • Patch wanted

  • python/dist/src/Objects unicodeobject.c, 2.228, 2.229

  • Minor cookielib changes for 2.4b1

  • proposed struct module format code addition

  • Cyclic GC issues

    Just don't have the time to summarize this, but a in-depth discussion of garbage collection involving extension code and using non-Python structs.

  • python-dev Summary for 2004-09-16 through 2004-09-30 [draft]

    Lead to a discussion of executing modules in packages using the new '-m' command-line flag.