Friday, April 04, 2003

Python is an Agile programming language! There, I said it, so now everyone can stop using terms like scripting and interpreted or high-level that either have negative connotations or don't really get across why Python is so great. Just say Python is an agile programming language. Note that Java and C# are not agile languages, but that Ruby probably is based on what I know about Ruby. If you use Jython with Java that also counts as agile. Ward Cunningham and I came up with the idea of calling Python an agile language during an evening get-together on March 14th with Brian Ingerson. We tried using the term all evening and it seemed to work. Since then, I've brought it up with people at PyCon and other events and everyone seems to like the term. It looks like we have a winner. 2:19:09 PM    comment []

Friday, March 21, 2003

Python 11 - OSCON 2003 Registration The registration page for Python 11 at OSCON 2003 is now available. The conference takes place July 7 - 11, 2003 in Portland, Oregon, USA.   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/register.html The theme of OSCON this year is "Embracing and Extending Proprietary Software". The O'Reilly Open Source Convention brings together the leaders of more than nine critical open source technologies. You will get an inside look at how to configure, optimize, code, and manage these powerful tools. The convention is rooted in a single premise -- to provide high-quality information that will allow you to raise your level of expertise and overcome challenges quickly, efficiently, and elegantly. The conference sessions, including the Python tutorials (Monday, Tuesday) and presentations (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) are available at:   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/tutorial_python.html   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/track_python.html   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/tutorials.html   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/sessions.html OSCON Home page:   http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2003/ I will repeat this announcement, provide additional information, and post updates at least once a month between now and July. ka --- Kevin Altis - Python 11 co-chair 10:24:54 AM    comment []

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Blogging PyCon? If you're planning to attend PyCon next week and update your blog while you're there, let people know so we can make a PyCon news page of sorts. I already made a post about this on comp.lang.python which has been mirrored to the python-list mailing list. 10:50:55 AM    comment []

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Official Python Blog? Should we have an official Python weblog as part of www.python.org? Fredrik Lundh's Daily Python-URL has been around a long time and does an excellent job of highlighting some of the things happening in the world of Python, but there are also a lot of things that don't appear. There is a Python Programmer Weblogs meta-blog that covers a lot more, but has the problem of not being 100% focused on Python issues, plus you tend to see a bit of duplication as people blogroll posts. There are some meta-blog lists on the PyZine home page just above the PyZine weblogs. The Dr. Dobb's Python-URL provides a weekly summary of happenings on comp.lang.python. comp.lang.python.announce covers new module releases and other announcements, but there is no RSS feed, it isn't updated every day, and again there are Python articles and other happenings that simply get missed. www.python.org already has a number of RDF/RSS files. There is an RSS file for the Python Package Index (PyPI). There is also an RSS feed for the Python wiki RecentChanges page. Finally, there is an channews.rdf file originally done for Netscape, which is generated from the data file, channews.dat. So, I just want to get this idea out there and see what other people think about whether we should have one, what items would and wouldn't appear in it. We should probably skip the implementation for now. You can email me directly with comments or post a follow-up on the blog and I'll summarize for the marketing-python mailing list where I first brought up this idea. 11:53:09 AM    comment []

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Python 2.3a2 The second alpha release of Python 2.3 is available. 7:29:24 PM    comment []

Python Scripting for .NET Brian Lloyd has posted his "initial (experimental) version" of Python Scripting for .NET along with a FAQ. It is described as an integration of the CPython runtime with the .NET CLR. This is different than the KOBRA .NET for Python wrapper by Chetan Gadgil. Neither of these should be confused with Visual Python, which has nothing to do with running Python in the CLR or integrating with .NET, but rather: Visual Python is the high-productivity Python plug-in for Visual Studio .NET. Powerful, Python-specific features within the familiar Visual Studio environment provide ease of use and accelerated development cycles. Yeah, I'm still a bit confused too ;-) Anyway, I don't use .NET or the Visual Studio .NET IDE so I have nothing more to add. 7:18:21 PM    comment []

Monday, February 17, 2003

Paint Shop Pro 8 Public Beta Paint Shop Pro 8 for Windows uses Python as its scripting engine. Below is an excerpt from the readme file. PSP 8 has a full blown scripting engine, based on the Python programming language. Though you can use Python to write scripts from scratch, in general there is no need to do so. PSP includes a script recorder, and virtually everything in the application can be recorded. Scripting functionality is primarily accessed either through the scripting toolbar or through the Script submenu of the file menu. From there you can record, pause recording, save recordings, and play, edit or cancel scripts. Bravo Jasc Software! The readme goes on to give more details about editing Python scripts in case you want to get more advanced as well as the security implications of using scripts from untrusted sources. 9:03:53 PM    comment []

A Conversion with Guido van Rossum The full set of interviews done with Guido back in July are now available. In Part I: The Making of Python, van Rossum describes Python's history, major influences, and design goals. In Part II: Python's Design Goals, van Rossum talks about Python's original design goals—how he originally intended Python to "bridge the gap between the shell and C," and how it eventually became used on large-scale applications. In Part III: Programming at Python Speed, van Rossum discusses the source of Python's famed programmer productivity and the joys of exploring new territory with code. In Part IV: Contracts in Python, van Rossum discusses the nature of contracts in a runtime typed programming language such as Python. In Part V: Strong versus Weak Typing, van Rossum discusses the robustness of systems built with strongly and weakly typed languages, the value of testing, and whether he'd fly on an all-Python plane. In Part VI: Designing with the Python Community, van Rossum discusses the importance of "pythonic" API design, the usefulness of intuiting performance, the value of experience and community feedback in design decisions, and the process of deciding how to evolve Python's standard library. 9:12:29 AM    comment []

Friday, February 14, 2003

A message for the five people that read this blog. The deadline for submitting a proposal to Python 11/OSCON 2003 is tomorrow, February 15th! Note to self, get a larger readership. 12:07:23 PM    comment []

Refactoring the Business Jon Udell posted a nice piece titled Refactoring the Business as a follow-up to last week's Shipping the Prototype. I've spent a lot of time with Ward Cunningham the last couple of weeks, talking about many of these issues and doing some pair programming in Python on his Fit framework. It feels sort of weird to read an article in a major publication that mirrors a conversation you had over beer just a few nights before. 1:20:10 AM    comment []