🌐 Mailman 3 December 2008 - Python-announce-list - python.org

ANN: pycairo release 1.8.0 now available
by Steve Dec. 15, 2008

Dec. 15, 2008

Pycairo is a set of Python bindings for the multi-platform 2D graphics library cairo. http://cairographics.org http://cairographics.org/pycairo A new pycairo release 1.8.0 is now available from: http://cairographics.org/releases/pycairo-1.8.0.tar.gz http://cairographics.org/releases/pycairo-1.8.0.tar.gz.md5 847f5377c32228a656819f5bd18eb6b4 pycairo-1.8.0.tar.gz Overview of changes from pycairo 1.6.4 to pycairo 1.8.0 ======================================================= General Changes: Pycairo 1.8.0 requires cairo 1.8.0 (or later). Add documentation (available separately) Bug Fixes: 18101: Add support for threading 18947: cairo.SurfacePattern should INCREF the used surface New Methods: ScaledFont.get_scale_matrix Surface.mark_dirty_rectangle Surface.set_fallback_resolution New Constants: cairo.EXTEND_PAD cairo.HAS_IMAGE_SURFACE cairo.HAS_USER_FONT API Changes: Surface.mark_dirty: no longer accepts keyword arguments with default values. PycairoPattern_FromPattern (C API): has a new 'base' argument - to fix #18947. Other Changes: Allow unknown cairo Pattern/Surface types to use the pycairo base Pattern/Surface type.

1 0

decorator 3.0 released
by Michele Simionato Dec. 15, 2008

Dec. 15, 2008

The decorator module goal is to simplify your life with decorators. Version 3 is available on PyPI and you can install it with $ easy_install decorator You can find the details about what's new here: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=245050

1 0

ANN: AsciiDoc 8.3.1 released
by Stuart Rackham Dec. 14, 2008

Dec. 14, 2008

This release fixes a couple of regression bugs in the initial version 8.3 release along with some minor additions. 8.3 release summary here: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/version83.html All additions and changes are detailed in the changelog: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/CHANGELOG.html What is it? ----------- AsciiDoc is an uncomplicated text document format for writing articles, short documents, books and UNIX man pages. AsciiDoc files can be translated to HTML, XHTML and DocBook (articles, books and refentry documents) using the asciidoc(1) command. DocBook can be post-processed to presentation formats such as HTML, PDF, DVI, roff and Postscript using the a2x toolchain wrapper and readily available Open Source tools. AsciiDoc is configurable: both the AsciiDoc source file syntax and the backend output markups (which can be almost any type of SGML/XML markup) can be customized and extended by user. Requisites ---------- Python 2.4 or higher. Obtaining AsciiDoc ------------------ The latest AsciiDoc version, examples and online documentation can be downloaded from http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/ AsciiDoc can also be downloaded from the SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/asciidoc/ The online Mercurial repository is at http://hg.sharesource.org/asciidoc/ Regards, Stuart -- Stuart Rackham

1 0

cx_Oracle 5.0
by Anthony Tuininga Dec. 14, 2008

Dec. 14, 2008

What is cx_Oracle? cx_Oracle is a Python extension module that allows access to Oracle and conforms to the Python database API 2.0 specifications with a few exceptions. Where do I get it? http://cx-oracle.sourceforge.net What's new? 1) Added support for Python 3.0 with much help from Amaury Forgeot d'Arc. 2) Removed support for Python 2.3 and Oracle 8i; Python 2.4 and Oracle 9i are the minimum releases supported; binaries are only available for Oracle 10g and Oracle 11g; binaries for Linux have been built on CentOS 5 for increased compatibility and now include x86_64 as well 3) Added support for full unicode mode in Python 2.x where all strings are passed in and returned as unicode (module must be built in this mode) rather than encoded strings; to build the module in this mode use this command: "WITH_UNICODE=1 python setup.py build" 4) nchar and nvarchar columns now return unicode instead of encoded strings 5) Added support for an output type handler and/or an input type handler to be specified at the connection and cursor levels 6) Added support for specifying both input and output converters for variables 7) Added support for specifying the array size of variables that are created using the cursor.var() method 8) Added support for events mode and database resident connection pooling (DRCP) in Oracle 11g 9) Added support for changing the password during construction of a new connection object as well as after the connection object has been created 10) Added support for the interval day to second data type in Oracle, represented as datetime.timedelta objects in Python 11) Added support for getting and setting the current_schema attribute for a session 12) Added support for proxy authentication in session pools as requested by Michael Wegrzynek (and thanks for the initial patch as well) 13) Modified connection.prepare() to return a boolean indicating if a transaction was actually prepared in order to avoid the error ORA-24756 (transaction does not exist) 14) Raise a cx_Oracle.Error instance rather than a string for column truncation errors as requested by Helge Tesdal 15) Fixed handling of environment handles in session pools in order to allow session pools to fetch objects without exceptions taking place

1 0

[ANN] Python 2.4.6 and 2.5.3, release candidate 1
by "Martin v. Löwis" Dec. 13, 2008

Dec. 13, 2008

On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community, I'm happy to announce the release candidates of Python 2.4.6 and 2.5.3. 2.5.3 is the last bug fix release of Python 2.5. Future 2.5.x releases will only include security fixes. According to the release notes, over 100 bugs and patches have been addressed since Python 2.5.1, many of them improving the stability of the interpreter, and improving its portability. 2.4.6 includes only a small number of security fixes. Python 2.6 is the latest version of Python, we're making this release for people who are still running Python 2.4. See the release notes at the website (also available as Misc/NEWS in the source distribution) for details of bugs fixed; most of them prevent interpreter crashes (and now cause proper Python exceptions in cases where the interpreter may have crashed before). Assuming no major problems crop up, a final release of Python 2.4.6 and 2.5.3 will follow in about a week's time. For more information on Python 2.4.6 and 2.5.3, including download links for various platforms, release notes, and known issues, please see: http://www.python.org/2.4.6 http://www.python.org/2.5.3 Highlights of the previous major Python releases are available from the Python 2.5 page, at http://www.python.org/2.4/highlights.html http://www.python.org/2.5/highlights.html Enjoy this release, Martin Martin v. Loewis martin(a)v.loewis.de Python Release Manager (on behalf of the entire python-dev team)

1 0

[ANN] Hatta wiki engine, version 1.2.0
by Radomir Dopieralski Dec. 13, 2008

Dec. 13, 2008

What is it? ----------- Hatta is a wiki engine that lives in your Mercurial repository. It can run both locally and hosted, and lets you work on the documentation of your project. All pages are stored as text files and you can pull/push, clone, merge and edit with any editor. What's new in version 1.2.0? ---------------------------- This version has internationalization support, together with a few translations: Arabic, Danish and Polish. The indexed search can now properly index Japanese words. It also has support for table headers and link anchors, not to mention all the bugs that has been fixed. Where to find it? ----------------- Go to http://hatta.sheep.art.pl to try it out and download. -- Radomir Dopieralski

1 0

ActivePython 2.6.1.1 and 3.0.0.0 released!
by Trent Mick Dec. 12, 2008

Dec. 12, 2008

I'm happy to announce that ActivePython 2.6.1.1 and ActivePython 3.0.0.0 are now available. Details and download links for 2.6 here: http://www.activestate.com/Products/activepython/feature_list.mhtml Details and download links for 3.0 here: http://www.activestate.com/Products/activepython/python3.mhtml All ActivePython downloads (e.g. for older releases) are available here: http://downloads.activestate.com/ActivePython/ ActivePython 3.0.0.0 is the first release of ActivePython for Python 3. ActivePython 2.6.1.1 is a patch release based on Python 2.6.1. What is ActivePython? --------------------- ActivePython is ActiveState's binary distribution of Python. Builds for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, HP-UX and AIX are made freely available. ActivePython includes the Python core and the many core extensions: zlib and bzip2 for data compression, the Berkeley DB (bsddb) and SQLite (sqlite3) database libraries, OpenSSL bindings for HTTPS support, the Tix GUI widgets for Tkinter, ElementTree for XML processing, ctypes (on supported platforms) for low-level library access, and others. The Windows distribution ships with PyWin32 -- a suite of Windows tools developed by Mark Hammond, including bindings to the Win32 API and Windows COM. Note that currently PyWin32 is not included in ActivePython 3.0. See this page for full details: http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/whatsincluded.html http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/3.0/whatsincluded.html As well, ActivePython ships with a wealth of documentation for both new and experienced Python programmers. In addition to the core Python docs, ActivePython includes the "What's New in Python" series, "Dive into Python", the Python FAQs & HOWTOs, and the Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs). An online version of the docs can be found here: http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/welcome.html We would welcome any and all feedback to: ActivePython-feedback(a)activestate.com.com Please file bugs against ActivePython at: http://bugs.activestate.com/query.cgi?set_product=ActivePython On what platforms does ActivePython run? ---------------------------------------- ActivePython includes installers for the following platforms: - Windows/x86 - Mac OS X - Linux/x86 - Linux/x86_64 ("x86_64" is also known as "AMD64") - Solaris/SPARC - Solaris/SPARC (64-bit) - Solaris/x86 - HP-UX/PA-RISC - AIX/PowerPC Extra Bits ---------- ActivePython releases also include the following: - ActivePython26.chm & ActivePython30.chm: An MS compiled help collection of the full ActivePython documentation set. Linux users of applications such as xCHM might find this useful. This package is installed by default on Windows. Extra bits are available from: http://downloads.activestate.com/ActivePython/etc/ Thanks, and enjoy! Trent, Python Tech Lead -- Trent Mick http://planet.activestate.com/ trentm at activestate.com

1 0

comtypes 0.5.3 released
by Thomas Heller Dec. 12, 2008

Dec. 12, 2008

I just released comtypes-0.5.3. comtypes is a lightweight Python COM package, based on the ctypes FFI library, in less than 10000 lines of code (not counting the tests). comtypes allows to define, call, and implement custom and dispatch-based COM interfaces in pure Python. It works on Windows, 64-bit Windows, and Windows CE. Download location: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115265 Homepage: http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/comtypes/ This is a maintainance release of the current repository state, before I merged the dynamic-dispatch branch (which will be released as comtypes-0.6.0 within the next few days). Summary of important changes: - Compatible with Python 3.0 - Added comtypes.shelllink module; this allows to manage shortcuts - Various smaller improvements Detailed changes since version 0.5.2: 2008-12-12 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Bumped version number to 0.5.3. * Added VARIANT support for VT_I8 and VT_UI8 typecodes. 2008-12-11 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Workaround for Python bug: Python 3 cannot handle a distutils installscript in the setup script * Merged the py3-branch: Various changes for py3 compatibility. The setup script now uses distutils.command.build_py.build_py_2to3 when run with Python 3.x, and converts the sources into py3 syntax on the fly (in the build directory). 2008-11-26 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Added untested code to comtypes.server: RegisterActiveObject() and RevokeActiveObject(), plus some flags. * Applied a patch from Torbjørn Tyridal. This allows to high-level implement methods in COM servers, and event handler methods that have [in] and [out] arguments in mixed order. 2008-11-05 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Add the IPersistFile interface to the comtypes.persist module. Add comtypes.shelllink module which contains IShellLinkA and IShellLinkW interfaces, plus the ShellLink coclass. 2008-10-29 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Handle coclass pointers as arguments in com interface methods correctly. Method calls will now accept pointers to the default interface of this coclass. * The Fire_Event() method in comtypes.server.connectionpoints now returns a list of results. 2008-10-10 Thomas Heller <theller(a)python.net> * Import cStringIO, which should always be available on Windows, instead of first trying cStringIO and then StringIO. * Python 2.6 compatibility: use 'types.MethodType' instead of 'new.instancemethod' to fix a -3 warning. Use 'raise Exception(details)' instead of 'raise Exception, details'. Don't use tuple unpacking in exception handlers: 'except COMError, err: (hresult, text, details) = err' instead of 'except COMError, (hresult, text, details)' * Python 2.4 compatibility: os.stat() raises OSError instead of WindowsError when a file is not found. -- Thanks, Thomas

1 0

Regular Toronto Area Python User's Group (PyGTA) meeting on Tuesday
by Mike C. Fletcher Dec. 11, 2008

Dec. 11, 2008

We'll be having our regular Toronto Area Python User's Group meeting this upcoming Tuesday (Dec 16th). Topic for the evening's discussions: What's your programming mantra? When you code, do you consciously think about the principles in the Zen of Python? Do you find yourself following them automatically without thought? Do you find they are pointless/irrelevant to your coding? Do you ever defend your decisions (to yourself or others) by reference? What about other programming "rules" (formal patterns, XP principles)? Do you shout YAGNI at your co-workers? Have you ever claimed that you DRY? What programming principles work for you and why? Or are principles just crutches that the weak-minded use to cover their lack of experience and deep thought? As usual, we'll meet at Linux Caffe, at the corner of Grace and Harbord streets, 1 block South of Christie station. We'll gather around 7:00 and start by 7:15pm. Om Mani Import This, Mike

1 0

Announcing IronPython 2.0
by Dave Fugate Dec. 10, 2008

Dec. 10, 2008

Hello Python Community, The IronPython and Dynamic Language Runtime teams are proud to announce the release of IronPython 2.0 final. IronPython 2.0 is the culmination of nearly two years worth of work resulting in a CPython 2.5 compatible release on .NET 2.0 SP1. By far, the biggest change to 2.0 is that our 1.1 codebase was refactored to run on top of the Dynamic Language Runtime<http://www.codeplex.com/dlr>. With this we automatically get improvements in many feature areas such as better .NET interop support and hosting Python from managed code. There have been many other major improvements as well. The most notable are: * An MSI installer for Windows platforms which includes parts of the CPython 2.5 standard library * IronPython assemblies targeting Silverlight and tools such as Chiron to improve the Silverlight dynamic development experience * The addition of more C-based standard modules such as cmath and _winreg * Significant improvements in importing compatibility and features * Distribution of IronPython under the Microsoft Public License which has been approved by OSI * Performance improvements. On that note, a new Wiki page has been created for IronPython performance reports - see http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/Wiki/View.aspx?title=IronPython%20Perfor… * Over 500 bugs have been closed in 2.0. 453 of these were reported on CodePlex * Support for precompilation of Python source files into a single dll This seems like an opportune time to remind everyone that we fix bugs based on the number of votes they have on CodePlex. As we're planning on releasing IronPython 2.0.1 fairly soon, please vote for your favorite bugs at http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/WorkItem/AdvancedList.aspx to help ensure they get fixed in time for the next release. We'd like to extend our gratitude to everyone in the IronPython community who reported bugs thereby making this a better release: milind, romank, chadaustin, sjmachin, davidfraser, TimothyFitz, drewid, sanxiyn, bashmohandes, pobrien, perhaps, haypo, Undebtedly, ayarrow, tscottw_cp, rope, arman0, eshaish, nivaldo, fuzzyman, CurtHagenlocher, Eloff, brucec, py_sunil, jacobg23, mziller, beaugunderson, gbraad, Oceanborn, tarlano, jbevain, glchapman, anthonybaxter, jdhardy, jjlee, haibo, doubleyewdee, jackeyoo, whit537, sdahlbac, PeteHufnagel, jtenney, nriley, junfeng, grizlupo, rridge, lewisle, JoelBondurant, johnplatt, lthompson, debackerl, googen, tscottw, VoteFw, leppie, Qvin, heyssion2, CriGoT, baxeno, sbergman, Laurion, luntain, oldman, christmas, 05031972, kevgu, wilberforce, Korbinian, lclj, sorokerr, Eriol, tatwright, ais, TraumaPony, pelikhan, asafk, felixpollan, srid, atifaziz, vernondcole, fwereade, zpy, yanne, facorreia, Daneel, zvikag, psykotic, Cavingdeep, BEaton, sborde, orbital56, fbourgeois, antont, krosavcheg, ktc1, awilkins, ben2004uk, paulfelix, axl, JeffreySax, Lawouach, and KKI. You can download IronPython 2.0 at: http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=8… The IronPython Team BTW Updates to the IronPython 1.0 samples will be released shortly. Stay tuned to the IronPython mailing list for details.

1 0