🌐 Mailman 3 October 2000 - Python-list - python.org

Re: Wholly unnecessary flame. (was Re: pyXML!)
by Martin von Loewis Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

"Chui Tey" <teyc(a)bigfoot.com> writes: > is there any reason why gcc on unix could not cross compile for windows and > mac? Building for x86 linux, Windows and Mac would cover 90% of all users. For Windows, there is indeed no reason. I use gcc as a cross-compiler (host=Solaris, target=i386-pc-mingw) myself. The only drawback is that the resulting import library for python.dll won't be VC++ compatible. Likewise, it can't link the VC++-generated pythonxy.lib that comes with your typical binary Windows distribution. So you can't use the cross gcc to build extension modules. If you have some C++ sources in your project (e.g. for use with ActiveX) you essentially have to give up: gcc's C++ implementation is not binary compatible with Microsoft's. As for the Mac: which version? I believe gcc does not support 68k Macs, and using it on PPC MacOS 8 or 9 is tricky. gcc is the default compiler on MacOS X, but Apple had made some modifications. They did publish those, but they are not part of gcc yet. Stan Shebs of Apple is working on integrating them into gcc 3. Regards, Martin

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reloading a C module
by chris_barker＠my-deja.com Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Hi all, I'm working on writing my first C extension module,and I have a question: (Python 1.5.2, Intel Linux (Redhat 6.1)) Should I be able to "reload" a C module? I compile my module as a shared module (*.so), import it (import spam), and it works fine. Then I make some changes, re-compile it, and reload it ( reload(spam) ). Nothing changes. If I kill Python and restart it, then import again it works, so the *.so file has changed. Is this supposed to work? If not, it really should be added to the docs. please CC: me at cbarker(a)jps.net, checking news from here is a pain. thanks, -Chris Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

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pyXML!
by root＠127.0.0.1 Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Is there any reason the XML sig has chosen to make it so f****g difficult to install the XML package? I go look through the sig archives, and I see dozens of people asking how to install the package, and *no answers* to those people. I go crawling through the website looking for a FAQ or How-To, and *no answers*. I download the package and the instructions are inadequate and apparently incorrect. Is this some sort of special old-boys club, where only the 3l33T H4X0R D00DZ get to play? Are y'all aware that the XML How-To doesn't jive, in the least little bit, with the XML package included with Python 2.0b? That the Python 2.0b XML documentation is utterly useless? That the modules themselves contain no useful commentary? Maybe I've been spoiled. I've become pretty used to plug-n-play Python packages. wxWindows is a great example: download the appropriate install, double-click and shazam!, I've got a decent demo, good documentation, plenty of examples. No dinking around with setup, no need to blow several hundred dollars on a C++ compiler that I don't want, no shouting into the void that is the sig mailing list. It's become extremely frustrating and deeply frustrating, and judging by the posts in the archives, I'm not alone. Why? Why is the XML group making it so damn difficult?

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Python 2.0 naive question
by Tim Roberts Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

I've tried to follow the recent discussions regarding Python 2.0b1, but I am left with a question. Is there a downside to moving from 1.5.2 to 2.0b1? I run Python both on Win32 and on Linux. Are .pyd files upward compatible, or do I need a whole new set? Are there many changes which will break old source? Will the new Python recompile .pyc's, or can it just read the old ones? There are only a few added modules that are important to me. Numpy already indicates support for 2.0. HTMLgen has complete source code, so that should be a no-brainer. What about mySqlDb? When perl went from 3.0 to 4.0, it was such a huge rethink that I stayed on 3.0 for longer than I should have. I'd like to know if the same kind of thing is true here. -- - Tim Roberts, timr(a)probo.com Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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Re: basic python threading question
by jay.krell＠cornell.edu Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Two points: > thread safety of reference counting Python should use Interlocked/InterlockedDecrement on Win32. Disassemble them to get them for other platforms that use Mips, PowerPC, x86, Alpha (and maybe more if you have Windows CE binaries). Gcc should provide these.. The shouldn't be too hard to write for other platforms in assembly, at least single processor platforms. Write the C code for += 1, compile optimized. Disassembly. Verify it is one instruction, copy it and make it source so you can guarantee it is one instruction. I think as long as a read/modify/write is one instruction it is guaranteed thread safe on most _single_ processor systems. Definitely not on multiprocessor systems though. You can probably mine the Linux or BSD kernels for this sort of thing too.. > thread safety of immutable objects (other than their refcount) You've heard of "multiple reader, single writer" locks? Well, think of immutability as "write once, before any reads, then multiple readers, zero writers". Function programming fans might point out that this is how much of their code behaves, and so functional programming is automatically thread safe. It is key that the one write completes before any other thread can read the object. - Jay

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piggies
by Brendhan Horne Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Is there a PIG group in the south Florida area? -- Thanks, Brendhan

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CGI Search Script?
by Alan Kennedy Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Hi Folks, I'm on the lookout for a python CGI search script. Does anyone know of such a beast? I'm using a Perl (ugh) script at the moment, and would like to move it over to something a little more maintainable, without having to start from scratch. TIA, Alan. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

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Re: Secure Passwords in Memory
by cookedm＠physics.mcmaster.ca Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

At some point, "Eric Gillespie, Jr." <epg(a)progenylinux.com> wrote: > On Sun, Oct 01, 2000 at 10:56:49AM +1300, > matt <matt(a)virtualspectator.com> wrote: > > > Are you worried about someone snooping all your memory, or just > > having access to the core dump of a python process? If it is the > > latter, then it's nicer to catch termination signals and quit > > nicely. > > I'm worried about memory. How is someone who isn't root going to snoop all memory? I would be more worried about core files. I believe, in the development of Linux, when /proc/kmem was introduced (it's basically a virtual file of all memory) there was a discussion about someone using it to snoop on passwords, especially the root password. Alan Cox stopped the discussion by pointing out that only root could access /proc/kmem, so what was the problem? Admittedly, you should still zero out passwords :-) If you eventually write a C module, you might want to look at the mlock(2) call, which locks a region in memory, so it isn't swapped. However, only root can use this, limiting it's utility. -- |>|\/|< ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- David M. Cooke cookedm(a)mcmaster.ca

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can I query an instance for its name?
by Luc Lefebvre Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

Hi, <\newbie alert on> I have been attempting to get access to instance names, eg: class foo: def __init__(self): pass def who(self): print "%s is an instance of class %s" % (self.????, self.__class__) if __name__=="__main__": x=foo() x.who() # would expect "x is an instance of class foo" Also, is there a way to enquire as to a given classes children eg: foo.__children__? <\newbie alert off> tia

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Re: Fractal Dimension Computation in Python Code
by Alex Oct. 1, 2000

Oct. 1, 2000

> A picture of the intuitive swiss-cheese/ shadow story you can tell > about the primitive form of the Hausdorff measure appears at the > beginning of Morgan's book Introduction to Geometric Measure Theory. Thanks, Mike. Funny; I learnt GMT from that book, but I'd forgotten about that. Alex. -- Speak softly but carry a big carrot.

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