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

Newbie: White space
by Ryan Abrahams April 10, 2000

April 10, 2000

I am new to python, I am actualy using it for rendering (via the Lightflow Python Module, at www.lightflowtech.com (and no I don't work for them)) and what I wanted to know was does Python check white space, because I had some code like this: s.lightBegin() s.lightOn( Sunlight ) Surface2 = s.newMaterial("standard", [ "ka", vector3( 0.5, 0.5, 0.0 ), "kc", vector3( 0.4, 0.2, 0.0 ), "kd", 0.5, "km", 0.1 ] ) s.lightEnd() and Python chucks a spit at the s.lightOn( Sunlight ) line. Now I have been trying to figure it out, maybe python does not support whitespace, because changing the code to s.lightBegin() s.lightOn( Sunlight ) Surface2 = s.newMaterial("standard", [ "ka", vector3( 0.5, 0.5, 0.0 ), "kc", vector3( 0.4, 0.2, 0.0 ), "kd", 0.5, "km", 0.1 ] ) s.lightEnd() and compiling it works perfectly. So is it Python that does not support hte white space, or perhaps the module I am including. Thanks Ryan

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Choice Of Language (was: Python Advocacy)
by Don Tuttle April 10, 2000

April 10, 2000

[Ran] > No, the project manager chooses the language(s) according to the needs > of the project and the availability of programmers and other resources. I have never programmed for a living. (I enjoy it way too much to ever do that! <wink 0.5>) So let me ask all you folks that do. What percentage of your paid, professional time do you get to use Python? Don -- Believe nothing no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. --Buddha

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anyone else wrap gd-1.8?
by Les Schaffer April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

I just wrapped the latest gd module -- version 1.8 which now handles both png and jpeg file formats -- into python. It was quite easy with SWIG. I noticed the gdmodule link on http://www.python.org/topics/scicomp/plotting.html is dead. has anyone else wrapped gd up lately? otherwise i am happy to distribute (all 1.25 hours of my accumulated time :-) les schaffer this gives you an idea what you can do: #!/usr/bin/python -O from gd import * # this demo taken __straight__ from the gd sample demo on boutell's GD # home page: http://www.boutell.com/gd and pythonized # Allocate the image: 64 pixels across by 64 pixels tall im = gdImageCreate(64, 64) # Allocate the color black (red, green and blue all minimum). # Since this is the first color in a new image, it will # be the background color. black = gdImageColorAllocate(im, 0, 0, 0) # Allocate the color white (red, green and blue all maximum). white = gdImageColorAllocate(im, 255, 255, 255) # Draw a line from the upper left to the lower right, # using white color index. gdImageLine(im, 0, 0, 63, 63, white) # Open a file for writing. "wb" means "write binary" pngout = fopen("test.png", "wb") # Do the same for a JPEG-format file. jpegout = fopen("test.jpg", "wb") # Output the same image in JPEG format, using the default # JPEG quality setting. gdImageJpeg(im, jpegout, -1) # Output the image to the disk file in PNG format. gdImagePng(im, pngout) # Close the files. fclose(pngout) fclose(jpegout) # Destroy the image in memory. gdImageDestroy(im)

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CGI extension problem
by Robin Becker April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

I don't have root privilege, my python cgi script needs access to an extension which I have built; the extension in turn needs a shared lib which I have built. I install in a directory say $HOME/lib. When I run the cgi script I need to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to at least include $HOME/lib. I have use the following idiom import sys, os HOME_LIB='/home/me/lib' if sys.platform != 'win32' and not os.environ.has_key('LD_LIBRARY_PATH'): os.environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = HOME_LIB os.execve(sys.argv[0],sys.argv,os.environ) # rest of cgi script ..... I can think of a few ways in which this might break, but is there anything obviously easier less breakable? -- Robin Becker

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Does Python have a long floating data type please?
by cmfinlay＠magnet.com.au April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

Does Python have a long floating data type like it does with long integer please? I am need a variable that handles a floating point number with a large number of decimal places (more than double by far) I am using Python on Win98. Thank you for your time in reading this. Colin Finlay. cmfinlay(a)magnet.com.au

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Python on Alpha OpenVMS
by Tomek Lisowski April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

Hi! I have tried to compile Python sources on my VAX OpenVMS system, but soon I realized, that instead of my trusty DEC C++ compiler I need a native C compiler. Unfortunately my C++ compiler cannot be reverted to a native C language mode. Has anyone succeeded to create VAX OpenVMS Python binaries? Note: Apart from VAX OpenVMS I have also an Alpha OpenVMS server, but here I don't have any C/C++ compiler available. If anyone has created Alpha OpenVMS Python binaries, please contact me too. Thanks in advance Tomasz Lisowski

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Python 1.6 alpha 1 released
by Guido van Rossum April 6, 2000

April 6, 2000

I've just released a source tarball and a Windows installer for Python 1.6 alpha 1 to the Python website: http://www.python.org/1.6/ Probably the biggest news (if you hadn't heard the rumors) is Unicode support. More news on the above webpage. Note: this is an alpha release. Some of the code is very rough! Please give it a try with your favorite Python application, but don't trust it for production use yet. I plan to release several more alpha and beta releases over the next two months, culminating in an 1.6 final release around June first. We need your help to make the final 1.6 release as robust as possible -- please test this alpha release!!! --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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Tkinter: "Get root for a widget" is private?
by Randall Hopper April 5, 2000

April 5, 2000

I have a widget and want to retrieve the root. I see the _root() method, but by Python convention, isn't this method private? Should users of Tkinter be calling this? -- Randall Hopper aa8vb(a)yahoo.com

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map.yahoo.com uses Python?
by Aaron J Reichow April 5, 2000

April 5, 2000

I went to maps.yahoo.com to look something up, and lo and behold, it looks like they use Python for their map CGI -- http://maps.yahoo.com redirects you to http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py. Just an interesting note, I suppose. Aaron

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Platf. indep. console lib.
by makarki.NOSPAM＠news.hit.fi April 5, 2000

April 5, 2000

Hi! It seems that there isn't any platform independent console (text graphics) library available in core Python distribution (or am I wrong?). Is there some specific reason for that? As far as I can tell, it should be quite easy to implement one with NCurses (*nix) and Conio (Windows: Watcom and Borland directly, Visual C with Win32API?), other platforms, I don't know. I know that there is some kind of NCurses module for Python but I would like to see something simple (such as Conio) which also would be supported under Linux and Win32 in core Python package. It would be nice to know that when I install the Python package to the computer, I'll be able to write and run Python programs with text graphics user interfaces. I know that Tkinter rules, but there has been some situations when I've been missing console library with move/gotoxy, addch/putch and getch (and with certainty that my programs will work both under Win32 and Linux terminal). What do you think? Sincerely, Matti

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