🌐 Mailman 3 September 1999 - Python-list - python.org

newbie: comparing mutually recursive lists
by Andrew Hutcheson Sept. 30, 1999

Sept. 30, 1999

If I create a pair of mutually recursive lists like a,b=[],[] a.append(b) b.append(a) and try to compare them I get a segmentation fault. I'm using the version of Python that comes with Debian 2.1 (Python 1.5.1 (#1, Dec 17 1998, 20:58:15) [GCC 2.7.2.3] on linux2 ). Does anyone know if this problem has been fixed? Failing that, can anyone suggest a workaround? -andy /** Andrew Hutcheson 31 Coburn Rd. Weston MA 02493 781.891.8046 hutch(a)psn.net +++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++ -- (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather) **/

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python as a first language?
by NOSPAMcraig＠osa.att.ne.jp Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

Hi, I want to get some feedback on how good Python is to learn for a beginner. I am interested in learning programming (OOP especially). I studied (bit didn't really learn) Fortran ages ago, studied formal logic (math) in university and have been playing around with web technologies (Javascript et al) and now want to try out bigger and better things. What are people's thinking regarding Perl vs Python for a beginner, or how about Python compared to Eiffel or Sather for this purpose? Any good suggestions for what road I should head up first? Cheers, Craig

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How to sell Python to your boss?
by Petri Mikael Kuittinen Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

I proposed an interesting idea to my employer for my final thesis. My proposed final thesis includes: - a prototype implementation of networked multi-player video gambling game (which also has a single-player mode) - a design of a network protocol to allow this and automated testing of the game (including several automated test player programs which have different kind of AI). This protocol and test system is designed so that it can easily be expanded to handle any sort of gambling game Most of the work is design, documentation and programming a rudimentary, but easy-to-use, GUI for the multi-player game. My boss otherwise agreed with my idea ("it would be really useful..."), but he doesn't want me to do the prototype implementation using Python. He said I must use a program language that all the other programmers in our R&D department understand. Well, that leaves only one choice: C Some of my game programmer colleagues know a little bit of C++, Java and Perl, but these languages cannot be used either. Operating system or CPU power is not a problem here (I can use Linux and several hundred MHz of CPU power). I have lots of programming experience in C, and much less in Python. Despite this I am confident that I would be able to implement the prototype using Python many times faster than using C. Sure I can do it with C, or even with assembler (I have made a GUI with m68k asm), but parsing text strings and prototype GUI design is so laborious in C, that I would only be able to implement a tiny portion of the whole thing. I can understand my bosses opinion. He wants to protect the interest of this firm. If I would leave the firm, then someone else would have tp spend time learning Python in order to modify my program code. For several months I have tried to get my colleagues excited to learn Python, but so far nobody has been interested to learn new languages, except for some mild interest towards Java (which is IMHO an overly-hyped language). Petri -- <(O)> Petri Kuittinen, also known as Eye, Dj Eye or Peku <(O)> <(O)> ADDRESS: Timpurinkuja 1 C 39, FIN-02600 Espoo, Finland <(O)> <(O)> EMAIL: eye(a)iki.fi WWW: http://www.iki.fi/~eye/ PHONE: 09-5472380 <(O)> ~The only way to avoid mistakes is to do nothing or try not anything new.

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Article on IBM developerWorks
by Henning Schroeder Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

Hi! Even IBM knows about Python :-) Check out http://www-4.ibm.com/software/developer/library/python101.html on their "developerWorks Linux Library". Henning

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Clashing cmp
by François Pinard Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

Hi, people. There is a builtin function named `cmp', but there is also an importable module `cmp' in the standard library. After a mere `import cmp' (I prefer to avoid `from cmp import SUCH-and-SUCH' if I may), I feel forced to write `__builtins__.cmp' to access the builtin function. This does not look very elegant to me. Would not it be better if such elementary clashes were avoided, at least within the standard distribution? -- François Pinard http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard

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keys and values lining up
by Nathan Clegg Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

If d is a dict, am I guaranteed that d.keys() and d.values() will line up, in proper order, if called successively with no modification in between? That is, is the following safe? k,v = d.keys(), d.values() Thanks! ---------------------------------- Nathan Clegg nathan(a)islanddata.com

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How do I let PyImport_ImportModule work like the normal python import?
by Maas-Maarten Zeeman Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

Hello, I have a problem with the PyImport_ImportModule call. What I want to do is create two c-extension. One extension uses PyImport_ImportModule to import the other. This all works great. Now when I place the two extension in a seperate directory and create an __init__.py for the directory and try to use import the c-extension will not be able to find the other. I suspected this to work like the nornal import, but this was not the case. Another thing I tried was PyImport_Import which uses the "import hook function", but this also didn't solve the problem. Does someone know how get the normal import behavoir inside a c-extension?

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ImageTk.PhotoImage vs. Tkinter.PhotoImage
by Les Schaffer Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

i need to zoom in on a user specified subset of an image. but i am confussed about ImageTk.PhotoImage and Tkinter.PhotoImage. the former creates an instance of the latter in its self.__photo, used for pasting. but i need access to Tkinter.Photoimage's copy and zoom commands. i dont understand why ImageTk.PhotoImage doesnt just extend Tkinter.PhotoImage so the copy and zoom methods are available, or delegate those calls to __photo methods. also, i notice that in Tkinter.PhotoImage the -from and -to keywords for the image copy methods are not explicitly defined. wonder why.... this is my first real foray into using tkinter/PIL for some astro work, so please excuse if my questions are stupid. so, with code like this: ... self.photo = ImageTk.PhotoImage(image) self.canvas.create_image(0, 0, image=self.photo, anchor=NW) ... i want to create a new PhotoImage consisting of a zoom in on a subset of self.photo (i have the x,y coords of the desired zoom area in self.photo). -- ____ Les Schaffer ___| --->> Engineering R&D <<--- Theoretical & Applied Mechanics | Designspring, Inc. Center for Radiophysics & Space Research | http://www.designspring.com/ Cornell Univ. schaffer(a)tam.cornell.edu | les(a)designspring.com

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Garbage Collection in Python - current status of issue?
by Ian Clarke Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

Hi all, Firstly, I know that this subject tends to ignite flame wars and so I urge anyone to ensure they are familiar with the FAQ entry on GC and all information pointed to by it (it is quite interesting reading anyway) before replying to this post. I urge anyone else to ignore anyone who obviously hasn't done this. The FAQ (and related pages), however, while pointing out what the various arguments and counter-arguments are, do not indicate whether there is any ongoing work in this area - so is there any ongoing work in this area? What is the current status of this issue? Cheers, Ian. -- "Don't throw your PC out the window, throw Windows out of your PC, and install Linux" Ian Clarke http://www.gnu.demon.co.uk/

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newbie q - win32com.client and msproject
by mcdonc＠iqgroup.com Sept. 29, 1999

Sept. 29, 1999

I am having problems using win32com.client to open and save files in MS Project. I've used makepy to catalog the MS Project COM interface. I'm hoping someone can help. I don't even understand what its trying to tell me. Here's my code: --- start code --- o = win32com.client.Dispatch("MSProject.Application") Name = "<C:\Program Files\Common Files\ODBC\Data Sources\MS-Project- Test.dsn>\Project1" Format = win32com.client.constants.pjMPP Backup = 0 ReadOnly = 0 TaskInformation = 0 Filtered = 0 Table = "" UserID = "sa" DatabasePassword = "" FormatID = "" o.FileOpen(Name, 0, 1, 0, "", "", 0, UserID, DatabasePassword, FormatID, "", "") o.FileSaveAs(Name, Format, Backup, ReadOnly, TaskInformation, Filtered, Table, UserID, DatabasePassword, FormatID) ---- end code --- This code fails with the following: --- start traceback --- >>> Traceback (innermost last): File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py", line 237, in RunScript exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__ File "C:\WINNT\Profiles\saltv\Desktop\project.py", line 14, in ? o.FileOpen(Name, 0, 1, 0, "", "", 0, UserID, DatabasePassword, FormatID, "", "") File "win32com\gen_py\A7107640-94DF-1068-855E-00DD01075445x0x4x2.py", line 6304, in FileOpen File "win32com\gen_py\A7107640-94DF-1068-855E-00DD01075445x0x4x2.py", line 2025, in _ApplyTypes_ ValueError: invalid literal for int(): --- end traceback --- the FileOpen method for MS Project is documented as such: -- begin FileOpen helpdoc -- FileOpen method Opens a project or imports data. Syntax expression.FileOpen(Name, ReadOnly, Merge, TaskInformation, Table, Sheet, NoAuto, UserID, DatabasePassWord, FormatID, Map, OpenPool) expression Optional. An expression that returns an Application object. Name Required String. The name of the project file, source file, or data source to open. ReadOnly Optional Boolean. True if the file is opened read-only. If selectively importing data instead of loading a complete project, ReadOnly is ignored. Merge Optional Long. Specifies whether to automatically merge the file with the active project. If Map is specified, Merge is ignored. Can be one of the following PjMerge constants: pjDoNotMerge, pjMerge, pjAppend, or pjPrompt. The default value is pjDoNotMerge. TaskInformation Optional Boolean. True if the file contains information on tasks, for a project saved under a non-Microsoft Project file format. False if the file contains information on resources. If Map is specified, TaskInformation is ignored. The default value is True if the active view is a task view; otherwise it is False. Table Optional String. The name of a table in which to place the resource or task information, for a project saved under a non- Microsoft Project file format. If Map is specified, or Name specifies a database file or format, Table is ignored. The default value for Table is the name of the active table. Sheet Optional String. The sheet to read when opening a workbook created in Microsoft Excel version 5.0 or later. If Map is specified, or if the file specified with Name is not a Microsoft Excel file, Sheet is ignored. NoAuto Optional Boolean. True if any Auto_Open macro is prevented from running. The default value is False. UserID Optional String. A user ID to use when accessing a database. If Name or FormatID isn't a database, UserID is ignored. DatabasePassWord Optional String. A password to use when accessing a database. If Name or FormatID isn't a database, DatabasePassWord is ignored. FormatID Optional String. The file or database format. If Microsoft Project recognizes the format of the file specified with Name, FormatID is ignored. Can be one of the following format strings: Format String Description "MSProject.mpp" Microsoft Project file "MSProject.mpt" Microsoft Project template "MSProject.mpd" Microsoft Project database "MSProject.mpw" Microsoft Project workspace "MSProject.mpx" Microsoft Project 4.0 MPX file "MSProject.odbc" ODBC database "MSProject.xls5" Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 (7.0) workbook "MSProject.xls8" Microsoft Excel 97 (8.0) workbook "MSProject.mdb8" Microsoft Access 97 (8.0) database "MSProject.csv" CSV file "MSProject.txt" TXT file Map Optional String. The name of the import/export map to use when importing data. OpenPool Optional Long. The action to take when opening a resource pool or sharer file. Can be one of the following PjPoolOpen constants: pjPromptPool, pjPoolReadOnly, pjPoolReadWrite, pjPoolAndShares, or pjDoNotOpenPool. The default value is pjPromptPool. --- end FileOpen helpdoc --- Can anyone lend a hand? Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

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