🌐 Mailman 3 December 2003 - Python-list - python.org

Re: Test if IDLE is a mature program
by bokr＠oz.net Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:46:25 -0800 (PST), Rob Boyd <boydrobh(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >--- Aubrey Hutchison <abhjrpe(a)comcast.net> wrote: >> Why do I need to tinker with it? >> >> You don't need to tinker with mature programs. >> >> >> -- >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > >I have _never_ had to tinker with IDLE in order to use >it. Please read the Python tutorial, 6.1.1, the Module >Search Path, before making uninformed assertions. Your >experience has nothing to do with IDLE or really even >Python. You wouldn't get far in C development if you >wrote a garbage file named stdio.h and saved it within >the library search path. OTOH, you don't expect #include <stdio.h> or #include <cstdio> to do the same as #include "stdio.h" Regards, Bengt Richter

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...And a happy new year btw (NT :)
by Christos TZOTZIOY Georgiou Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

-- TZOTZIOY, I speak England very best, Ils sont fous ces Redmontains! --Harddix

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Re: Project dream
by Cousin Stanley Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

| This site is out of date. | Clicking on "this months requests" | shows stuff from May of 2000 Brad .... The site is old and out of date, but I think that many of the requests for programs may still be valid and perhaps a good source of inspiration for coders looking for projects .... Pack a lunch, then try the Request Archive .... http://www.csn.ul.ie/~madman/software/madereq/archived.htm -- Cousin Stanley Human Being Phoenix, Arizona

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Re: PYTHONPATH unnecessary with PythonWin?
by r.e.s. Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

"Jeff Epler" <jepler(a)unpythonic.net> wrote ... > Python searches some directories by default. The documentation probably > describes this in more detail. Using PYTHONPATH, you can > add to that list. For instance, it's often useful (particularly on > Unix) to have a personal directory listed in PYTHONPATH (like > ~/lib/python) for your own modules. I've created one folder for that purpose, namely C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\MyProjects and I put all my own modules in various subfolders of that one. It seems to work, but maybe I'm breaking some protocols?

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Re: Project dream
by Paul Rubin Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

Christian Tismer <tismer(a)stackless.com> writes: > > Suppose you have the time and the money to start a new project in > > Python. What would you like to do? > > I would like to provide some ideas which I'm carrying around since > quite some time. My reluctance is about the fact that I almost never > saw an announcement like this being a serious offer. Most of the > time it was just some sugar spread around to make people excited, > creating lengthy threads with no result. How serious are you about > spending a reasonable amount for a really innovative application in > Python. I'm a bit curious since none of my google hits reach beyond 2003. I don't see any bad consequences of posting interesting ideas for projects, even if nobody takes them up.

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Re: selecting a random item from a set
by python＠rcn.com Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

[Tim Peters] > You can do it in O(1) space now at essentially full C speed via, e.g., > > i = random.randrange(len(some_set)) > random_elt = itertools.islice(some_set, i, None).next() > some_set.remove(random_elt) . . . > If the sets are small, you're not going to beat random.choice(tuple(s)). If > the sets are large, low-level optimization of an approach with the wrong O() > behavior is just a monumentally bad idea. If the sets are of middling size, > get more ambitious <wink>. The two solutions above are optimal if you only make one random selection. If you need multiple selections, then try: random.sample(tuple(s), k) Raymond Hettinger

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Graceful failures
by jacobsmail＠postmark.net Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

Hello all, I'm nearing the completion of my first graphical console game and my thoughts have turned to the subject of gracefully handling runtime errors. During development I like to not handle exceptions, so that program execution will halt and I can immediately read the traceback to see what's up. Once the bugs are more or less worked out, I have a system ready wherein any exceptions are caught and an attempt is made to write the traceback object to a log file. This system suits me for the upcoming testing phase - if my beta testers do anything to make the game crash, I can read about the error and its causes in the log later. But what about the eventual production version that I distribute to the public? My current understanding is that there's always a chance a computer program can fail in some way at runtime, disk access being an example. Suppose the startup code for my game fails to load one of the images from disk. I can't think of any reasonable way to rescue things, and under such conditions I would prefer that the program gracefully exits. The aforementioned traceback logging is fine for me as the developer, but useless to the end user of the production version. So - I'm real curious - what are the canonical ways that a computer application should gracefully fail? I'm somewhat reluctant to write a bunch of code for pretty windows that pop up with some message to the effect of, "internal error, game exiting." My main reservation here is it doesn't seem it can be done cross platform, and since my game is in a graphical console there's no place for stdout to write. However, if this is the best way to go about error handling, I'm willing to write the code. And I would appreciate advice about how to handle the cross platform problem. :) Thanks in advance for any help! Jake

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Re: Python Job Market
by Maxim Khesin Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

> It's funny to sit in on a sales call because now even our sales guys "brag" > that Python-based technology is part of our competitive advantage as if it's > our secret sauce or something, whereas initially it was more "Shh, lest people > find our we're using some weird scripting language". :) > > HTH, > Dave Paul Graham has a parallel article proclaiming that LISP was his competitive advantage (building viaweb ant selling it to Yahoo). http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html nice plug for python there, 2

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Re: Formal reference for Python
by Andrew Dalke Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

Tim Churches: > I am writing a scientific paper and need to reference Python. Is there any > preferred way of doing so, which gives credit where it is due? This has been > discussed previously, but not recently, I think. Why don't you do what Tim Churches suggested in http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-May/105857.html It seemed to work for him then. ;) Andrew dalke(a)dalkescientific.com

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GO AHEAD -MAKE ME LOOK DUMB- Please
by Aubrey Hutchison Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

I have exhausted places to look for where "PYTHONPATH" is located.. In windows (using the DOS command) no such thing exist but path does. I find no file with that name. I have yet to find a config file that I would think might work as PYTHONPATH. What am I missing? Thanks Aubrey

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