Python 3000 FAQ

Guido van Rossum answers some Python 3000 FAQs on this forum

Here are some of the questions:

Q. I want to learn Python. Should I learn Python 2.6 or Python 3.0?

Q. If you're killing reduce(), why are you keeping map() and filter()?

Q. Multi-core processors will be standard even on laptops in the near future. Is Python 3.0 going to get rid of the GIL (Global Interpreter Lock) in order to be able to benefit from this feature?

Q. I prefer to use the same source code for 2.x and 3.0; I really don't want to have to use the 2to3 source conversion tool. Why can't you make that work?

IronMonkey: scripting Firefox natively with IronPython and IronRuby

Mozilla has announced IronMonkey, the project to map IronPython and IronRuby to Tamarin, so that Tamarin becomes multi-lingual, over time delivering high performance for all languages. The idea is to make use of the MsPL-licensed open source that Microsoft has kindly given the world, and tend necessary changes or additional code in downstream truly-open repositories that can accept patches from non-MS employees, such as FePy.

.NET Dynamic Languages Group on Facebook

Facebook has a .NET Dynamic Languages Group

Here is the URL: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2430928882

Some members you might know
Miguel De Icaza
Scott Hanselman
John Lam

YSlow: Speed up your web pages

YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow based on the rules for high performance web sites. YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the popular Firebug web development tool. YSlow gives you:
Performance report card
HTTP/HTML summary
List of components in the page
Tools including JSLint

Learn more and download YSlow here: http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

Podcast: Josh Berkus On PostgreSQL

FLOSS Weekly 18: Josh Berkus on PostgreSQL.

Guest: Josh Berkus, member of the PostgreSQL open source database project CoreTeam and is PostgreSQL Lead for Sun Microsystems
The history and features of PostgreSQL and why you might want to use it.

Download it here: http://www.twit.tv/floss18

Python documentation team is looking for members

Georg Brandl sent out a call for people who wish to help with the python documentation.

Dear fellow Pythonistas,

as you may have heard, Python is going to get a new documentation system
soon [1]. As part of that effort, and in order to maintain the excellent
quality of the docs, we are looking for members of the maintainers team.
This is your chance to get involved with Python development!

There will be two main objectives of the group, or maybe two subgroups can
be formed:

* Maintaining the documentation contents:
- processing user submitted comments, bugs and patches
- helping out developers with docs-related matters, keeping an eye
on commits to ensure quality
- keeping the docs up-to-date, e.g. write new sections for new
Python 3000 features

The docs source will be in reStructuredText, which is already known to a
relatively high percentage of Python developers.

The new online version of the docs will contain features to add comments
and suggest changes, so it is expected that there will be some amount
of user involvement.


* Development of the toolset:
- fixing bugs in the package
- adding new output formats, e.g. info or pdf
- adding new features to the web application
- adapting it to new docutils features

Read the rest here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2007-July/073960.html

Python To Be Part Of Foundry's Nuke

4RFV is reporting that Python will be part of Foundry's Nuke
From the site:

The Foundry will be offering sneak previews of the next major release of
its compositing application Nuke; editing professionals will be able to get an
idea of what’s to come with Furnace for Final Cut Pro; and those looking to
enhance their OFX-compatible DI and compositing solutions will get a good look
at the new Furnace 4 for OFX collection.The Foundry will preview the next
release of Nuke and has confirmed it is currently working on the
much-anticipated UI improvements, plus support for Python, an extensible
programming language, which is becoming widely supported by other application
vendors and forming the backbone of many studios pipelines. Enhanced Layer and
Channel support to eliminate the 64 channels limit, improved nodegraph
manipulation capabilities, simplified management and selection - are amongst the
other key improvements.

For further information: www.thefoundry.co.uk

Python Magazine Announced

Python Magazine has been announced

You can buy Python Magazine in one of two formats:
PDF-only, downloadable from their website and viewable using all popular PDF viewers, including xpdf, OSX Preview and, of course, Adobe Acrobat.
Print and PDF; you will receive your copy of PyMag in the mail (the regular kind) and also have access to PDF editions as they become available on their website.

Do you want to write for PyMag?

Read their Write for Us section for more information (and, in case you're wondering, they do pay for articles they publish).

Get more info here: http://www.pythonmagazine.com/

Who Am I And Why Did I Start This Blog?

My name is Denis Gobo and I am a SQL Server developer. I have been working with SQL Server since version 6. My other blogs are SQL Server Code,Tips and Tricks, Performance Tuning and http://sqlblog.com/blogs/denis_gobo/default.aspx. A couple of day ago I wrote a blog post titled Become A better Developer In 6 Months. In that blog post I wrote which books I would read and also what new language and framework I would learn. So as you can guess I have picked Python, PostgreSQL and Django. This blog will show my progress and struggle as I try to master these new things. After I am comfortable with these technologies I will trhrow in a little IronPyton for fun......stay tuned and wish me well

Denis