PyCon 2004: Making Python Faster and Better

Grok Headline matches for PyCon 2004: Making Python Faster and Better

PYCON 2003: 1st annual Python
developers' conference

PYCON 2003: 1st annual Python
developers' conference 02/13/2003 10:36 PM
Over the past decade, Python has grown world-wide into a programming language that is used in mission-critical applications by major players such as Google ...

PyCon DC 2004

PyCon DC 2004 04/21/2004 05:03 AM
Showing off new software, planning for the future and running sprints in DC.

Making OS X Faster

Making OS X Faster 06/03/2004 01:49 PM

"Python code for making a maze"

"Python code for making a maze" 06/08/2004 08:54 AM

Making Operating Systems Faster

Making Operating Systems Faster 06/03/2004 10:32 AM

Making An Operating System Faster

Making An Operating System Faster 06/04/2004 01:51 PM
Kernelthread.com: Making an Operating System Faster .. Ten things Apple did to make Mac OS X faster

kernelthread.com/mac/apme/optimizations
track this site | 6 links

"?The deployment Internet 2 will bring
the equivalent of 10 T-1s to every
Internet user making it possible for
iTunes to deliver songs faster than you
can buy them.?"

"?The deployment Internet 2 will bring
the equivalent of 10 T-1s to every
Internet user making it possible for
iTunes to deliver songs faster than you
can buy them.?" 06/25/2004 03:22 PM

Startup Faster! 2004 v1.65

Startup Faster! 2004 v1.65 05/15/2004 08:25 PM
Startup Faster! 2004 is a revolutionary tool to make your computer boot much faster than ever while protecting your hard disk from sudden failure. [Shareware $29.95 21 Days 2.09 MB]

2004-07-16T15:19:17 5 minutes with
Python

2004-07-16T15:19:17 5 minutes with
Python 07/16/2004 10:15 AM

I know PHP, and I'm learning Python. After 5 minutes:

- it's pretty much the same as PHP, except that you don't put ; characters at the end of a command.
- and except that Python comes with a tool that lets you run programs without having to upload to a server.
- and variables don't use the $ sign in front of them.
- don't use curly brackets, instead just indent stuff
- and more little differences like that: elseif() in PHP is elif in Python. function becomes def. Variables within functions are local, not global, just like PHP.
- you have to define variables before using them. This annoys me much. And it complains when you mix different types of variables. This annoys me mucher. I don't see why this is necessary, except for making my life harder.

Going well so far - I got Hello World running in minutes.

Word 2004 Bigger, Better, But Not Faster

Word 2004 Bigger, Better, But Not Faster 08/02/2004 07:06 PM
If you need the utmost in cross-platform compatibility in your word processor, or if you need a "writing" program more powerful than many desktop publishing systems in the past, Word 2004 is for your. By Dennis Sellers, Macsimum (via MyAppleMenu)

PyCon

PyCon 04/09/2004 03:55 PM
At the recent PyCon , I was asked the following question. If you had a time machine and could change any one thing about Python what would it be? I didn't feel I had the expertise to answer, but I promised I'd ask the OSAF developers and post in my...

PyCon observations

PyCon observations 03/28/2005 01:04 PM

I'm back from my two week stint in the US, and currently suffering from vicious jet-lag (my body wants me to go to sleep at 5am and wake up just past noon). Herewith some observations on PyCon, SxSW and the differences between the two.

PyCon 2005 was a great conference, and a very different one from SxSW Interactive the week before. While SxSW was one big social party with panels thrown in to fill the gaps, the sessions in PyCon were the main event and the social stuff (with the exception of the sprints, which I didn't really experience) was much less prominent. For the first day of the conference I actually found it quite hard to spark up conversations with strangers, something I'd been doing for pretty much the whole of SxSW. Things got better on the second and third days, but the lack of any organised social events and more reserved atmosphere meant I didn't have nearly as many random social experiences as at SxSW.

The PyCon sessions really were excellent: three great keynotes (the IronPython keynote was my favourite), an excellent web track and a whole smorgasbord of interesting topics spread over the three days. I have only one big complaint: all sessions apart from the keynotes were half an hour in length. For most sessions this worked fine, but some of the more experienced presenters were obviously shackled by the half hour requirement. Bruce Eckel's presentation was the most noticable in this regard - I love the stuff he covered, but it's obvious he could have gone on for a lot longer without losing the attention of the crowd (he obviously thought the same).

My suggestion for next year would be to keep most of the sessions at half an hour, but schedule a small number of 45 minute sessions for presenters who are obvious candidates for longer talks. I talked to Steve Holden (this year's organiser) briefly about this and he mentioned that 45 minute sessions lead to scheduling difficulties, particularly with respect to coordinating the different tracks. I personally think that the benefits of longer sessions for certain key topics would outweigh the scheduling disadvantages.

A few other PyCon observations:

• There were over 400 attendees, at least a hundred more than last year. This slightly exceeded the capacity of the conference center, and they'll be mobing to a larger (as yet undecided) venue for 2006.
• I only attended one of the two lightning talk sessions, but it was great fun and a refreshing change from the regular panels. The highlight for me was the guy who strapped a computer to the back of his motorcycle and drove 7,000 miles across America... with Python to coordinate all of the pieces. You can read more on his site, or in this article on Py.
• The two (sometimes three) tracks were well arranged, with few clashes between things that I wanted to see. This was in contrast to SxSW's 5 tracks which had serious clashes pretty much all the time.
• Everyone was hiring! The conference package we got was stacked with job brochures from the conference sponsors, and the whiteboard by the registration desk had new jobs added to it every day. Sure-fire evidence that Python is finally starting to gain significance in the job market.
• The lunches, included in the conference price, were excellent. The price itself was great value too - early bird for students was $125, and $175 for regular attendees. Even late registration was only (from memory) $275.
• The largest venue at the center, used for the keynotes, had no WiFi! Coverage throughout the rest of the conference was good however.
• I finally got to join Ted Leung and friends in a SubEthaEdit session during the Python at Google keynote. It was an electrifying experience watching each slide transcribed in to the notes within seconds of it appearing on screen, with multiple lines developing at the same time. The results of our labour can be seen here. Someone really needs to put together a screencast of this kind of thing so the rest of the world knows what they're missing.
• Despite my observations about the less social nature of the conference above, I met some very interesting people and had a really great time.

It seems to me that Python and SxSW could learn some tricks from each other. Lightning talks and Birds-of-a-feather sessions would be a great addition to the SxSW lineup, while PyCon really does need some more thought put in to the social side of the conference. I hope to attend both again next year.

CNN.com - Star names join Python on
Broadway - Jul 7, 2004

CNN.com - Star names join Python on
Broadway - Jul 7, 2004 07/08/2004 09:03 PM

Apple Releases Faster iBooks and
PowerBooks (26-Apr-2004; 2.6K)

Apple Releases Faster iBooks and
PowerBooks (26-Apr-2004; 2.6K) 04/26/2004 09:53 PM

Apple Releases Faster iBooks and
PowerBooks (19-Apr-2004; 2.3K)

Apple Releases Faster iBooks and
PowerBooks (19-Apr-2004; 2.3K) 04/19/2004 11:17 PM

Samsung to unveil faster GDDR3 memory by
Q4 2004

Samsung to unveil faster GDDR3 memory by
Q4 2004 04/22/2004 06:35 AM

Ted Leung: Chandler Sprint and BOF at
PyCon

Ted Leung: Chandler Sprint and BOF at
PyCon 03/14/2005 05:05 PM
Ted Leung has posted an announcement about OSAF's upcoming activities at PyCon. OSAF will be running a Chandler sprint at PyCon in about three weeks. The focus of the sprint is going to be writing parcels for Chandler. Chandler's end user functionality is built using parcels, so the parcels...

Global chip sector tipped to grow faster
in 2004 on robust demand (AFP)

Global chip sector tipped to grow faster
in 2004 on robust demand (AFP) 05/04/2004 03:57 AM
AFP - The global semiconductor sector is expected to post double digit growth this year as firms race to quench consumers' seemingly endless thirst for the latest electronic gadgets, analysts said.

Python and XML: XML Namespaces Support
in Python Tools, Part Two

Python and XML: XML Namespaces Support
in Python Tools, Part Two 05/13/2004 07:55 PM
In his latest Python and XML column, Uche Ogbuji continues his tour of XML namespaces support in Python tools, focusing this time on 4Suite.

Python and XML: XML Namespaces Support
in Python Tools, Part Three

Python and XML: XML Namespaces Support
in Python Tools, Part Three 06/30/2004 07:31 PM
In this month's Python and XML column Uche Ogbuji examines the namespace support in ElementTree, PyRXPU, and libxml.

True IT recovery in the making for 2004

True IT recovery in the making for 2004 11/17/2003 09:13 AM
Personal Computer World Nov 17 2003 8:24AM ET

Making of the Digital Press Corps, 2004

Making of the Digital Press Corps, 2004 01/29/2004 01:47 AM
A presidential election year brings a new flock of candidates and a host of electronic advances for the journalists who follow them.

Power trip Can computers keep getting
faster and faster?

Power trip Can computers keep getting
faster and faster? 07/25/2004 04:11 AM
BBC Jul 25 2004 7:52AM GMT

CNN.com - Schwarzenegger: Stop making
bobblehead dolls - May 1, 2004

CNN.com - Schwarzenegger: Stop making
bobblehead dolls - May 1, 2004 05/02/2004 03:10 AM
CNN Story on Schwarzenegger bobblehead dolls .. Governator

cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/01/arnold.doll.ap/index.html
track this site | 4 links

The Virtues of Chitchat - Making I.T.
Work - CIO Magazine May 15,2004

The Virtues of Chitchat - Making I.T.
Work - CIO Magazine May 15,2004 05/18/2004 05:50 AM
this article about the plogging phenomenon .. Michael Schrage's CIO Magazine column .. CIO magazine on blogs for projects .. plog is short for 'project log' .. The Virtues of Chitchat .. plog

cio.com/archive/051504/work.html
track this site | 9 links

BW Online | June 7, 2004 | Making
Macintosh More Corporate

BW Online | June 7, 2004 | Making
Macintosh More Corporate 06/02/2004 02:34 AM
Mac users now have an Office suite equal to Windows' .. Making Macintosh More Corporate

businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_23/b3886028.htm
track this site | 5 links

3G to Boost Speed, Faster and Faster

3G to Boost Speed, Faster and Faster 01/05/2005 04:20 PM
Wi-Fi Networking News Jan 5 2005 7:24PM GMT

Backporting from Python 2.3 to Python
2.2

Backporting from Python 2.3 to Python
2.2 06/08/2004 11:18 PM

We have a home-grown templating system at work, which I intend to dedicate an entry to some time in the future. We originally wrote it in Python 2.2, but upgraded to Python 2.3 a while ago and have since been evolving our code in that environment. Today I found a need to load the most recent version of our templating system on to a small, long neglected application that had been running the original version ever since it had enough features to be usable.

Unfortunately, this application was running on a server that only had Python 2.2. Installing Python 2.3 would have been somewhat more painful here than on other servers we run for reasons I won't go in to, so I decided to have a go at getting our current code to run under the older Python version.

In the end, I only had to make three minor changes, all at the top of the file in question.

1. I added from __future__ import generators as the very first line of the file. We use generators (with the yield statement) in a few places - this feature was only properly added in Python 2.3, but was made available in Python 2.2 as a "future enhancement" through the aforementioned obscure import.

2. I added True, False = 1, 0 on the next line down. Surprisingly, Python 2.2 had no support for a boolean type and instead used a test for non-zero instead. The above line defines constants that behave enough like Python 2.3's True and False to avoid any problems.

3. I defined an enumerate function, which was introduced for real in Python 2.3. Here's the code I used:

   
   def enumerate(obj):
       for i, item in zip(range(len(obj)), obj):
           yield i, item 
   

All in all it only took around ten minutes to put the above together, after which the script worked just fine. It was interesting to see how our code had grown to rely on Python 2.3 features without us realising it.

XML-Deviant: Faster, Faster!

XML-Deviant: Faster, Faster! 12/19/2004 03:49 PM
Edd Dumbill reports on debate about making XML faster and leaner and offers the opportunity to send nominations for this year's XML Anti-Awards.

Linksys says faster..FASTER!

Linksys says faster..FASTER! 01/04/2005 08:10 PM
Over at CES, Linksys will be announcing a new series of 802.11g products that integrate SRX, a new speed boosting feature.

Currently, 802.11g networks have a range of between 120 and 160 feet and a transfer at 54mbps.

Linksys claims that the SRX enabled 802.11g products can provide 3 times the range (450 feet) and is 8 times faster (i.e. nearly USB 2 speed wireless).

It's completely compatible with other 802.11g and 802.11b networks.

The wireless router is expected to sell for $199 and each card around $129 and should be available at stores shortly.

News source: In-House


Read full story...

XML with Xen and with Python

XML with Xen and with Python 12/19/2004 03:53 PM
Here is a comment on the paper "Programming with Circles, Triangles and Rectangles" by Erik Meijer et al. Perhaps interesting for XML programmers.

Python 2.3

Python 2.3 10/28/2003 11:06 PM
Python 2.3 was released yesterday... and not a moment too soon. I was just swearing under my breath about this sort of nonsense:

>>> cosmos = technorati.cosmos('http://diveintomark.org/')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "technorati.py", line 214, in cosmos
    xmldoc = minidom.parseString(rawdata)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/minidom.py", 
    line 1605, in parseString
    return expatbuilder.parseString(string)
, in parseString
    return builder.parseString(string)
  File
"/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/expatbuilder.py", 
    line 187, in parseString
    parser = self.getParser()
  File
"/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/expatbuilder.py", 
    line 119, in getParser
    self._parser = self.createParser()
  File
"/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/expatbuilder.py", 
    line 734, in createParser
    parser.namespace_prefixes = True
AttributeError: namespace_prefixes

OS X users, don't be discouraged by the mention of there being no MacPython version yet or daunted by the task of compiling it from source -- MacP ython 2.3 lives and is just a few glorious GUI installer clicks away.

Python 2.3.3

Python 2.3.3 12/30/2003 05:13 PM
A high-level scripting language.

MPY (MPi for pYthon)

MPY (MPi for pYthon) 06/26/2004 05:20 PM
MPY Version 0.1 Released

PHP Everywhere: Python vs. PHP?

PHP Everywhere: Python vs. PHP? 03/30/2005 09:12 AM
From PHP Everywhere today:

Another look at PHP and Python

Another look at PHP and Python 02/10/2004 02:46 AM
Postscript: Some people have got the impression from this article that I am moving away from PHP. That is far from the truth. I will continue to use PHP extensively today, tomorrow and for the forseeable future.

I find Python harder than PHP.

It could be because we are programming multi-threaded networked servers in Python, and that could be inherently harder than coding dynamic web-sites. Another reason could be lack of familiarity with Python. For example, I couldn't find the equivalent of htmlspecialchars and other functions, so i had to roll my own.

Despite all these issues, we are continuing to develop this in Python because (AFAIK) PHP does not have stable networking frameworks.

So what do I like about Python?

- Neat Syntax

The use of indentation for compound statements discourages deep nesting, and thus more modular code.

- More Safety Checks

In PHP, when you search using a regular expression, an associative array is returned. In Python, a typed object, "match" is returned when a regular expression search is performed, and not a generic dictionary. You cannot perform arithmetic on strings, an explicit cast is required; neither can you concatenate numbers with strings, explicit typecasts are needed.

- Supports Multi-Threaded Apps

There exists a global lock in Python that prevents multi-threading from working effectively on multiple processors - nevertheless Python has reasonable thread support and allows me to develop reasonably responsive servers.

- Python's Compiler is Standard

Python has a standard compiler and byte-code format. There is no such standard in the PHP world, and most ISP's don't support Zend or Turck MMCache encoded PHP. Better still, a debugger is included in the package too.

- Python Fully Supports Unicode

Python 2.0 and later has full support for unicode. For example to convert big5 to unicode is the simple:

    unicode_str = unicode(tw_chinese_string, 'big5')

In contrast, see how complicated it is to perform double-byte to unicode conversions in PHP (see User Notes).

The only issue i had with the unicode support is that it doesn't come with a complete set of double-byte decoders (eg. big5, gb). After a 20 minute google search, i found this set of python cjk decoders.

And what I dislike about Python

- Python Is Not Rapid Enough?

I think that PHP is a better tool for rapid application development, especially for web-sites. Minor type issues are handled for you transparently in PHP. In Python, once a variable is set, stricter type-checking is performed on most operations.

So you can argue that Python is safer. But PHP coding is definitely more rapid.

Another thing i dislike is that Python's import/load facility does not check .py file modification dates. If i modify a .py file, Python's run-time environment will not recompile it until i restart Python, or perform a reload manually from the command-line interpreter.

- Database Access

Python does not have official database drivers, and you have to select and download these drivers yourself. It's easy to get it wrong. For example, only after coding the adodb_odbc module using PythonWin odbc extension did i realize how awful PythonWin odbc was. I then found the mxODBC extension - unfortunately the mxODBC requires commercial licensing ($75 per CPU).

- Python is Not That Popular

Popularity is relative. There are lots of Python programmers - but there are perhaps 3 times more PHP programmers than Python ones. In Malaysia, the ratio of PHP to Python programmers is probably much worse (10:1?). And there are many training centers offering PHP courses. AFAIK, there are no centers in Malaysia offering Python training. A quick search in monster.com reveals the following (numbers might change over time):

PHP: 131 jobs
http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?q=php&re=0&sort=rv&tm=&fn=6 60&vw=b&cy=US&brd=1%2C1862%2C1863

Python: 41 jobs
http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?q=python&re=0&sort=rv&t m=&fn=660&vw=b&cy=US&brd=1%2C1862%2C1863

Python-SIP 4.1.1

Python-SIP 4.1.1 09/24/2004 03:30 PM
A tool to generate Python bindings from C++ code.

Python-SIP 4.0.1

Python-SIP 4.0.1 07/06/2004 06:45 AM
A tool to generate Python bindings from C++ code.

Python-SIP 4.0

Python-SIP 4.0 06/23/2004 12:48 PM
A tool to generate Python bindings from C++ code.
Grok Description matches for PyCon 2004: Making Python Faster and Better
GrokA matches for PyCon 2004: Making Python Faster and Better

Decompiling python bytecode

Decompiling python bytecode 07/06/2004 08:28 PM
Since my machine is making what can reasonably be described as Bad Noises, I figure I'd best get this put up while I still can. This, then, is Python::Bytecode v2.1, a variant of Simon Cozens' version on CPAN. The difference here is that it knows about Python 2.3 bytecode and doesn't know about version 2.1 and 2.2 bytecode. (Though it claims it does) This version has several issues. First, the tests fail, because I switched out the test bytecode files. (The tests actually work, just the data they're looking at is different than what they should be looking at) Second,...

Ah, right--new Python::Bytecode

Ah, right--new Python::Bytecode 07/18/2004 12:04 PM
Since I was tired of the fail messages from the CPAN testers, the generic failures on Win32, and needed some reasonable printing for debugging and code analysis, I uploaded Python::Bytecode 2.7 to CPAN. (Or snag it from that link there if you want it)...

Python-Bytecode-2.6

Python-Bytecode-2.6 07/16/2004 06:53 AM

Python-Bytecode-2.5

Python-Bytecode-2.5 07/14/2004 11:46 PM

Python::Bytecode

Python::Bytecode 07/15/2004 10:08 AM
FWIW, this is up to version 2.5. (I see something fetching the 2.2 archive, but I've not looked at what's doing it) If you want to play, install that from CPAN, though it seems to have test issues on some systems that I need to track down at some point, to duck the smoke test messages if nothing else. This version added support for reading complex numbers, unicode strings, and proper handling (I think) of bignums. With this release all the piethon bytecode can be read without error, though of course that's a big step away from actually doing anything...

Python-Bytecode-2.4

Python-Bytecode-2.4 07/12/2004 05:30 PM

Python-Bytecode-2.7

Python-Bytecode-2.7 07/18/2004 05:43 AM

Python on the 6600

Python on the 6600 03/06/2004 01:56 AM

I just saw python running on the Nokia 6600. Soo cool. I can't wait to get my hands on it. You may have heard, but python is coming first, not perl. My next python script will be a bot from my phone.

Socket Programming in Python

Socket Programming in Python 02/19/2004 04:28 AM
In this article I shall discuss socket programming in Python. I have explained the concepts using a sample Python client and a server.

"my Python code"

"my Python code" 06/08/2004 08:54 AM

Python-SIP 3.9

Python-SIP 3.9 12/08/2003 04:42 PM
A tool to generate Python bindings from C++ code.

Python Web Objects 0.72

Python Web Objects 0.72 03/16/2003 05:54 AM
A dynamic page generation system for embedding Python code in HTML.

Python Web Objects 0.71

Python Web Objects 0.71 03/16/2003 03:05 AM
A dynamic page generation system for embedding Python code in HTML.

Python vs Parrot

Python vs Parrot 12/17/2004 06:34 PM
In many ways, it seems like Python and Parrot are from different planets. In Python, the general approach seems to be to reduce everything possible to a canonical form as early as possible, and then deal with everything consistently. In Parrot, the general approach seems to be to leave everything in its original form as long as possible, and then deal with everything separately. ...

Python Scripting For .NET

Python Scripting For .NET 03/19/2003 10:41 PM

Brian Lloyd: I've finally been able to post an initial (experimental) version of Python Scripting for .NET [via Sean McGrath]

First impressions: this looks like the first step towards where PerlNET has ended up: two VMs, two garbage collected heaps, but on the bright side, every existing Python application runs without change or without any performance degradation.

PyCon 2004: Making Python Faster and Better

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: 6600 samples python socket samples in python making python faster python libxml pilgrim rapidweaver 3.1.2 license code drake elementtree pycon python bytecode pythonxcodesamples decompiling python os x