Speno's Pythonic Avocado

Excellent new (semi) Python podcast

2010-01-28T08:18:00.002-05:00

The Dev Show is my new favorite Python podcast.

Mac OS X Services - Changes between Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard

2009-12-24T14:43:00.005-05:00

When a file or folder is selected in the Finder and a Mac OS X Service is invoked, either through the Services menu or its keyboard shortcut, the input fed to the service depends on what version of Mac OS X is running.

In Tiger, (10.4), no input is fed to the service.
In Leopard (10.5), the absolute path to the file is the input. E.g. "/Users/steve/tablet.rtf"
In Snow Leopard (10.6), if the service is configured properly to work on files and folders, then the input will be file URL like "file://Users/steve/tablet.rtf".

In Leopard, any service that accepted selected text would automatically work with selected files or folders in the Finder. However, Snow Leopard changed that. It is still possible for a service to accept both selected text and files plus folders, but if you create a Service using Automator, you are forced to choose one or the other. So, pick one and save your Service. For this example, I'm assuming you picked 'Files and Folders'.

Next, edit the ~/Library/Services/Foo.workflow/Contents/Info.plist and change this:


  <key>NSSendFileTypes</key>
     <array>
         <string>public.item</string>
     </array>

to this:


  <key>NSSendFileTypes</key>
     <array>
         <string>public.item</string>
     </array>
  <key>NSSendTypes</key>
     <array>
         <string>NSStringPboardType</string>
     </array>

Then, in the Python program that is your service, you may want something like this to detect that your input is a file path:


  if input.starswith('file://') or input.startswith('/'):
      # I think I got a file path as input

For more details, see Services Properties in the Mac Dev Center. Happy holidays!

Calculating the keytag of a DNSKEY in Python

2009-09-24T23:02:00.007-04:00

In DNSEC, sometimes you want to know the "keytag" of a DNSKEY record. Here's a Python implementation that uses dnspython:


import struct

def keytag(dnskey):
    """
    Given a dns.rdtypes.ANY.DNSKEY dnskey, compute and return its keytag.

    For details, see RFC 2535, section 4.1.6
    """
    if dnskey.algorithm == 1:
        a = ord(dnskey.key[-3]) << 8
        b = ord(dnskey.key[-2])
        return a + b
    else:
        header = struct.pack("!HBB", dnskey.flags, dnskey.protocol, dnskey.algorithm)
        key = header + dnskey.key
        ac = 0
        for i, value in enumerate(ord(x) for x in key):
            if i % 2:
                ac += value
            else:
                ac += (value << 8)
        ac += (ac >> 16) & 0xffff
        return ac & 0xffff

Using Django's Syncdb outside of Django

2009-09-15T13:58:00.006-04:00

I'm working on another project that uses Django's ORM that isn't (yet) a web applicaiton. There's no settings.py file as the application has its own configuration system build on ConfigObj and optparase. But, before you can use the app, you need to create the tables that Django's ORM needs for your Models. If you app lives in a python package named 'fooapp', then put your Django models in fooapp.models and try this code:


from django.conf import settings
from django.core.management.commands import syncdb

opts, args = build_configuration()
my_app = 'fooapp'
settings.configure(
    DATABASE_ENGINE=opts['db_engine'],
    DATABASE_NAME=opts['db_name'],
    DATABASE_USER=opts['db_user'],
    DATABASE_PASSWORD=opts['db_pass'],
    DATABASE_HOST=opts['db_host'],
    DATABASE_PORT=opts['db_port'],
    INSTALLED_APPS=(my_app,)
)
cmd = syncdb.Command()
cmd.handle_noargs()

And do let me know if that works. Thanks!

Running Django with wsgiref that also serves Admin media

2009-07-26T11:05:00.002-04:00

I wanted to run a Django app using Python's built-in wsgiref module. It also serves Django admin media. Consider this a stepping stone to running your Django app using CherryPy.

from wsgiref.simple_server import make_server
from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
from django.core.servers.basehttp import AdminMediaHandler
httpd = make_server('', 8000, AdminMediaHandler(WSGIHandler()))
httpd.serve_forever()

Rhymes with Pony

2009-03-19T18:07:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I pushed out Owney which does USPS shipment tracking in Python. It uses a bit of Django as well. It's got rough edges, so please watch your fingers! I intend to polish it as time permits. I do want to make it a re-usable Django app, but I need some advice on how to make that work.

The original Owney was a dog with a very interesting life.

Enjoy!

Snakes in the bassinet (Baby's first open source project)

2009-01-17T11:49:00.004-05:00

I pushed out my first open source project this week. It's a Python interface to HelpSpot's web services API. HelpSpot is a help desk application that I use, like and happily recommend.

You can find my project python-helpspot on GitHub. I have another open source thing in the works too. That one is going to be a doggy and it'll have a touch of the django.

Missteps in Django - Part 3

2009-01-08T12:51:00.003-05:00

This one will make it obvious that the missteps are my own mistakes, not problems inherit in Django. I'm not terribly embarrassed to look this dumb. Most days, I'm proud of my density. On with the show!

I guess this is another template issue. Oh well. I wanted to set the CSS class on an HTML tag based on some dynamic data. In this case, the data was the status field on my Shipment model:


class Shipment(models.Model):
    description = models.TextField()
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True);
    status = models.CharField(max_length=64, default="new",
                                                    choices=STATUS_CHOICES)

I'm omitting STATUS_CHOICES because its not important to my point. I wanted each displayed shipment to have a different background color. My initial idea was to try something like this:


class={% ifequal thing.status "new" %}"new"{% elifequal thing.status "exception" %}"exception"{% endelifequal %}...

Of course, Django doesn't have an elif construct in its templates. Doesn't matter because my idea was stupid and eventually I figured that I could do this:


class="status_{{ shipment.status }}"

and be done with it. I hope I had a good laugh at myself.

Missteps in Django - Part 2

2008-12-22T12:34:00.009-05:00

My next misstep was related to using the regroup tag that I mentioned in the previous post.

First, let's take a look at the example model I'm working with.


class Shipment(models.Model):
 description = models.TextField()
 created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True);

I wanted to display these Shipments grouped by they day they had been created and I wanted that day formated like "2008-12-22". Since the 'created' field of the Shipment model is a datetime.datetime instance which, when viewed as a string, looks like "2008-12-23 19:16:06.700114". That was a bit too verbose and besides, I wanted shipments grouped by day, not by microsecond!

My solution was to a add a property (of course!) to my model and see if I could use that in the regroup tag. Here's what that looked like:


class Shipment(models.Model):
    description = models.TextField()
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True);

    def _get_ship_date(self):
        return self.created.date()

    ship_date = property(_get_ship_date)

Then in my regroup tag, I could do this:


<ul>
{% regroup shipments by ship_date as shipments_by_date %}
{% for ship_date in shipments_by_date %}
    <li>Shipments for {{ ship_date.grouper }} </li>
    <ol>
    {% for shipment in ship_date.list %}
        <li> {{ shipment.description }} </li>
    {% endfor %}
    </ol>
{% endfor %}
</ul>

Hey, that worked, but this was another of my newbie missteps because there was an aspect to the regroup tag that I had overlooked (this series should be called RTFM maybe?). You can apply a filter to the attribute you are regrouping on like so:


{% regroup ship_list by created|date:"Y-n-d" as shipments_by_date %}

And you're done.

Missteps in Django - Part 1

2008-12-17T08:37:00.010-05:00

Welcome back fellow Avocadoists! I finally got something up and running in Django and I'm going to tell you about some problems I had learning and using Django in the process. I'm working on my own as the programmer and the designer so I'm sure that colors my view of things.

My first issue was with in Django's templates. Namely, there seems to be no way to look things up dynamically in a dictionary based on the value of another template tag. I'm not even sure that makes sense so here's an example of what I was trying to do:

# the python part in your view method
things_by_day = {
  '2008-11-28' : [thing1, thing2],
  '2008-11-29' : [thing3, thing4, thing 5],
  '2008-11-30' : [thing6],
}
days = d.keys()
days.sort()

# The Django template part
{% for day in days %}
  Here are the things for {{ day }}
  {% for thing in things_by_day.day %}
 do the thing with the list of things
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

So the part in the template where it says "for thing in things_by_day.day" is the part that doesn't work the way my brain expected it to. I expected the value of "things_by_date.day" to be the Python equivalent of "things_by_day[day]" but instead Django's template language translates this as "things_by_day['day']". It treats the string "day" as the key. Fail.

I figured out there was a way to do almost what I wanted using Django's regroup tag, but "No sir! I don't like it!"

Here's what the template part looks like using regroup. Note that in the following template "things" is a queryset on a model with a field named "created" instead of a simple dict or list.


{% regroup things by created as things_by_date %}
{% for thing_date in things_by_date %}
  Here are the things for {{ thing_date.grouper }}
  {% for thing in thing_date.list %}
      do the thing with the list of things
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

I find this syntax noxious and I can't remember what name to use where. In the process of writing this, I got it wrong in nearly every possible way. It's probably still wrong (I'm sure you'll let me know). What's with the magic names like "grouper" and "list"? I really just want to let Python be Python and use a dictionary in a normal way. I understand the limitations of Django's template system and why they were made and for the most part I support those decisions. Then the ice weasels come.

I'm sure someone has made a new template tag to do dict lookups the way I was trying to do. It may be this one. Please feel free to let me know in the comments. I'm still quite new to Django and eager to learn more. Thanks!

Cholecalciferol

2008-10-09T08:37:00.008-04:00

There's something I know you need and probably aren't getting enough of. It's Vitamin D, specifically Vitamin D3 also known as cholecalciferol. Personally, I take at least 5,000IU of it a day unless I've spent some quality time in the sun. I also give it to my kids in appropriate doses.

To learn about why you might want to get more Vitamin D3 in your life, I recommend starting with The Vitamin D Council's site. Their October 2008 newsletter inspired me to post this.

One thing I like about Vitamin D3 is that it's cheap, especially in the summer time when it's free (your skin makes it for you when it is exposed to sunlight)! When it isn't free, I buy it from iHerb.com whom I've used for many years with no complaints. If anyone is interested, feel free to use coupon code PEN753 for $5 off your order for first time customers. Disclaimer: If you use that coupon, I get a referral fee.

In case you were curious (and I was), the cholecalciferol in commercial supplements is probably derived from lanolin.

And here is a link to the specific brand of Vitamin D3 that I use:

Healthy Origins, Vitamin D3, 2,400 IU, 360 Softgels

While I'm mentioning it, here's the other supplement I take 400 - 500 mg of nightly:

Now Foods, Magnesium Citrate, 200 mg, 250 Tablets

Those magnesium people need to get their act together and form a council so I'd have something to link to. In lieu of that, here's something by Dr. Michael Eades on his favorite supplement.

Sweet Somethings!

2008-06-28T22:21:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine, Mike, just announced the opening of his online store: Kai's Candy Company. I love the look of their site. Their Handmade Japanese candies are unique here in the States. They are currently offering Obama and McCain candies for the 2008 political season. I really need to find out what that super secret surprise candy is too!

Mike and I worked together at Penn. When he came for his interview, he thought we were looking for a perl programmer because that was what he was told by the recruiting agency. We were actually looking for someone with python experience of which he had little to none of at the time. I'm so glad that didn't get in the way of him getting the job because it was my pleasure to work with him. I hope his new venture is a sweet success!

Netflix Disappointment

2008-06-24T19:19:00.001-04:00

Netflix recently announced that it was removing a feature from its service. It happens to be a feature that my family relies on. They say the decision is final and there's no indication that they plan to replace it. That said, we dropped two dvds from out account today and we'll drop the rest when they go through with it if not sooner. At least they made that part easy!

More reactions from users:

This American $152,000

2008-06-11T08:01:00.002-04:00

I listen to the This American Life podcast each week and the program has recently started asking for donations to cover their bandwidth costs of $152,000 a year. It seems like a waste of money when things like bittorrent and Amazon S3 exist in the world. I guess they opted for good and fast from their list of three options.

The Python of Record

2008-05-26T08:10:00.001-04:00

Python makes the New York Times

I'm all up in ur top

2008-05-20T13:06:00.002-04:00

By way of Dan Benjamin, I see this thing called Alltop. Next, I see their python area. Finally, I see that this blog, Speno's Pythonic Avocado, is listed among the top sources of python news. Clearly, this Alltop thing is not to be trusted.

Further proof is that the excellent, JUNKFOOD SCIENCE,is completely missing from their Health section.

*plonk*

the machine that goes PING!

2008-04-30T18:37:00.012-04:00

Meet ~bin/sonar.

#!/bin/sh
# usage: sonar <host or ip address>
while :
do
  ping -c 1 $1 && say "PING!"
  sleep 30
done

This is a super fancy network monitoring tool. The original version of this was from another friend named Mark (not he of greenbar fame) and it played a submarine style sonar "ping" sound when a ping was successful. When you're waiting for your server to come back up, and you have time for a nap until it does, a tool like this is just what you need.

This version relies on the Mac OS X /usr/bin/say command.

Eat your heart out peep.

EDIT: Yeah, as originally posted the ping command was missing an argument. I blame myself and blogger's difficult to use posting. Thanks, Aaron.

Drop Anything

2008-04-21T16:02:00.018-04:00

Sometimes you need drag and drop support for your scripts. Luckily, there's this Mac OS X tool which turns your scripts into applications onto which you can drop files and present their paths as arguments to your script. It's called DropScript and you can find it on Willfredo Sanchez's software page.

I used it to feed input to a remote python program and it works perfectly. Of course you need to give it a cute icon so that people will want to drop files on it. Here's one I like:

Icon by: Fasticon.com

This is getting awk-ward

2008-04-18T08:03:00.006-04:00

Ideas from readers DrewP and Justin have greenbar approaching the size of the original awk version. Thank you both.


#!/usr/bin/python -u

import sys

try:
   pat = sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
   pat = None

green = True
for line in iter(sys.stdin.readline, ""):
    if (pat and pat in line) or (not pat and green):
        print "\x1b[7m%s\x1b[0m" % line.rstrip()
    else:
        print line,
    green = not green

Please to dance round for the one called the Greenbar

2008-04-11T07:05:00.011-04:00

Inspired by what I can only guess is my unsightly python version of greenbar, drewp has created a version with 100 percent more fun to look at. Thanks!

Drewp's version (see here) is what I always hoped greenbar would grow up to look like when it was written by someone who was not me. I wish the enumerate thing would work - I tried that originally too, but no, it's not to be. It works fine if the input is a regular file, but not when you want to read the stdout of another process. There's internal buffering in python that chunks up the input making the most common use of greenbar, watching a growing log file, hopeless.

Combining the two versions results in a super hybrid that works and is easy on your eyes. Tada!

#!/usr/bin/python -u

import sys

try:
pat = sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
pat = None

lineno = 0
while 1:
 line = sys.stdin.readline()
 if not line:
     break
 if (pat and pat in line) or (not pat and lineno % 2 == 0):
   print "\x1b[7m%s\x1b[0m" % line.rstrip()
 else:
   print line,
 lineno = lineno + 1

P.s. The original awk version was shorter still. If I find a copy, I'll bury it so that python looks better.

spice up your tail minus effs with greenbar

2008-04-08T23:02:00.008-04:00

I've been missing this tool for a while now. The original "greenbar" was in written in awk, probably by my friend Mark S. It took input and inverted the text of every other line (like greenbar printer paper). It made watching log files scroll up your terminal much easier to parse.

Here's my python version which has one new feature. It can be given a string argument in which case it will only highlight lines in its input that contain that string.


#!/usr/bin/python -u

import sys

REG = "\x1b[0m"
INV = "\x1b[7m"

try:
   pat = sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
   pat = None

i = 0
while 1:
     line = sys.stdin.readline()
   if not line:
       break
   if pat:
       if pat in line:
           print INV, line,
       else:
           print REG, line,
   else:
       if i % 2 == 0:
           print INV, line,
       else:
           print REG, line,
   i = i + 1
if i:
   print REG

It's important to use unbuffered I/O, thus the "-u" flag to python is used along with sys.stdin.readline().

Since you didn't mention it

2007-12-08T09:08:00.001-05:00

Amazon said the Django book has shipped and should be here on Dec 11th.

p.s. Hello Jen's dad!

That Which Is Not Dead

2007-11-15T18:49:00.000-05:00

Email.

Usenet is still dead however. Sad really, given how much of my life I spent in the care and feeding of news servers.

Django Bookie - Confusion and Delay?

2007-09-18T08:07:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to my last post I present Amazon's new delivery status on the Django book.

Ta ta for now.

Django Bookie

2007-09-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

My delivery widget, the fantastic Delivery Status, tells me that Amazon will have the Django book in my hands in two days. Color me skeptical. No, I mean more than usual, smart guy!

pythonic powncer

2007-07-09T19:35:00.000-04:00

Oh hai!

I'm in ur pownce, given away ur invites. You wants?

kthxbai.

TheSecret ThisService

2007-06-22T14:04:00.000-04:00

I love ThisService because it lets me "script" MacOS X using the command line. It allows you to take any script and turn it into a MacOS X service. Scripts that take standard input make the most interesting services in my opinion. In any application, you select the text you want as input to your script, press the keystroke you've assigned for your service, and your script is invoked with the selected text as its input. Combine that with a python script using the webbrowser module like I have and prepare to triple your productivity(*).

(*) May also result in nuclear meltdowns.

Pshop Image Limited

2007-05-18T13:18:00.001-04:00

I have this one task at "work" that I did using Photoshop. It's simple and requires the same few steps to be performed each time I do it. I may do it a few times a week at most, but each time I did I wished I wasn't doing it by hand. I thought "I know! I'll learn Photoshop scripting. It's just javascript..."

But I put it off since I was already busy not learning Django...

Then the other day I realized I could just do it in Python using the Python Imaging Library. A few minutes later and it was done.



#!/usr/local/bin/python

from PIL import Image
import sys

src = sys.argv[1]
dst = 'output.jpg' 
orig = Image.open(src)
thumb = orig.resize((450,321))
new = Image.new('RGB', (1500,1500))
for j in range(5):
    for i in range(5):
        new.paste(thumb, (j*450,i*321))
new.save(dst)

Thanks to my friend, the Python Challenge, for making me spend so much time with dear old PIL back in the day.

Ruby has the lead

2007-04-16T08:27:00.000-04:00

In baby names that is.

I'm reading the newsletter from our favorite birth center and they always list the names of the babies born there in the past few months. This time I noticed three babies named Ruby (two born on the same day!) but none are named Python. No Guidos either.

Django Boogie - part 1

2007-03-30T11:05:00.000-04:00

I found a Django based application that I'm interested in checking out, but I'm a complete Django newbie. Let's change that. Please?

Today I started learning how to use Django from the free online beta version of the forthcoming Django Book. After I installed Python 2.4.4 (because it had working readline support) on my Mac, I set up Django from SVN. I worked my way through the first three chapters which went very smoothly. I've learned enough for the day to feel very satisfied, and I may come back for more later.

One thing that Django does very well is its debug mode error pages. I saw more of those then I probably should have. ;-)

Ttfn.

bits of tids

2007-03-29T09:04:00.000-04:00

It's been over a year since I left my university job to work in the family business. Best year ever!

The Subway (rest in peace) based web application I started there lives on and continues to be improved. If anyone wants the Subway framework's source, drop me a line. I may say yes. *wink*

Some python nuggets from this year:

The 0.12 snapshot of elinks, a full featured text based web browser, has a new python scripting back end. The code was contributed by my friend the poultrygeist.

Also from the poultrygeist comes this python oddity:


>>> raise ()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in ?
TypeError: exceptions must be classes, instances, or strings (deprecated), not tuple

O RLY?!


>>> raise (IndexError, "ha")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in ?
IndexError
>>>
>>> raise ((KeyError, SyntaxError), IndexError)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in ?
KeyError

Sure looks like exceptions can be tuples, even nested tuples. Odd.

Plone: Adding Roles to Groups

2007-03-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

I'm a complete Plone/Zope newbie. Let's keep it that way. Please?

If only I had seen this first:

Plone FAQ: How do I add a Role?

Here's a slightly more detailed how-to:

At top level of your site's Zope Management Interface (ZMI), create the new Role in Security tab.

Also in the same level of the ZMI, edit /acl_users/portal_role_manager by adding the new role (and make sure the name matches from step 1!)

In Plone's site setup : Users and Groups Administration : Groups, you'll now be able to assign the new Role to a group.

That's it!

Delicious album art

2006-05-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

I can't vouch for the music, but the cover art really speaks to me. The back is even better!

P.s. Yes, I'm alive. Hello everyone.

Subterranean Explorations, part trois: The Change Things More

2005-10-24T09:22:00.000-04:00

Greetings fellow Subway-ologists! If you recall our last two installments, please un-recall them because everything is different now. Better, if you will. Ahem, yes. Quite.

In part two, we learned about lovable little widgets. Oh! Who could forget those cute little snippets of Cheetah templates ready and able to jump to attention at a moment's notice?

Well, forget them, they're dead and hopefully buried. Get over it. Views can include other views so there wasn't really a need for them anyway. Pesky things.

And in part the first, I revealed the wonders of the docstring view. Pure simplicity and brilliance, but sadly lacking the power of the file based species who could extend other views.

Well, forget that, docstring views can now do that too. Excelsior!

And speaking of all things views, compiled views are now tidily tucked away so as to be unseen. They live in an app/views/.compiled directory and I'm quite happy about it. No more view droppings scattered about the pallor, no sirree.

Subway is nearing another milestone release, and the rumors have it that a "lesscode" 1.0 might not be too far behind. Got to beat the competition and all.

Until next time. Soon?

A part time Python job with YT

2005-10-18T14:25:00.000-04:00

I'm switching to half time work in November (and there was MUCH rejoycing!) so we need someone to pick up all my slack. We need someone with these kinds of skills:

* Python, python, python, python, spam and python
* Web Applications (We use CGI and Subway currently, but TurobGears is close enough <wink>)
* Databases (MySQL, and the MySQLdb python module)
* Asynchronous programming (Twisted and/or Threads)
* SNMP

The job is in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, and we prefer someone who can be at the office as much as possible. This is a part time and temporary position.

Still reading? Excellent!

If you, or someone you know is interested, get that resume to spamfilter@macspeno.com. And feel free to ask any questions about the job either here or via mail.

Take care.

P.S. yes, that's my real email address.

Speno on Rails!

2005-10-06T14:28:00.000-04:00

No relation.

I wonder if they'd ever let me drive one of those things...

Django powered Avocados!

2005-09-28T13:37:00.000-04:00

Here. Make sure you view the luscious close up version of the picture. *drool*

The CherryPy Orchard

2005-09-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

CherryPy Release Candidate 1 is now available here. Yay!

Earlier today I was watching Kevin Dangoor's very well done screencast on TurboGears and I noticed something that gave me a happy. You see, TurboGears is built on top of CherryPy, and during the presentation I saw one of the minor changes I had made to CherryPy flash on the screen. Even though it's such a tiny thing, I got really chuffed about it.

That's when I realized how wonderful it has been to be a part of a team of talented open source developers like those that help put together CherryPy. I've been using open source for a long time but I've never really enjoyed it as much as I do right now. It's very, very sweet.

Take care.

Subterranean exploration, part 2 or What's a Widget?

2005-09-16T21:49:00.000-04:00

Now that I have the attention of all you Thornton Melon fans, it's time to once again illuminate our electric torches and brandish our pickaxes in search of the latest chunky cured pork products from the Subway project. Today we're going to talk about widgets

Calm down! Calm down. It's okay. There's no danger here. Unlike the terrifying toe eating widgets of the Gobi dessert, Subway's variety are friendly. They're small, cuddly and unicorn-like in their ability to slowly drain impure thoughts from your brains.

Subway's widgets are small bits of view code available in the widget namespace. This means that your views can include those widgets whenever they are needed. The widgets themselves live in your application's widget directory and are, just like Subway's views, Cheetah templates. Here's an example widget that I'm fond of:


#if 'notice' in $flash
    <div class="notice">
        $escape($flash.notice)
    </div>
#end if

That's Subway's notice.html widget which is used for web status notification. Whenever you need it, just drop it into your view using

$widget.notice

and you're all set. If you need to you can also pass arguments to your widgets using normal Python syntax.

My friend, if you like widgets, and I mean really like widgets, then go read Subway's How-to page on them right now!

More python from my coworkers (pykpass)

2005-08-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

Well, the world already knows about my friend Shumon's first public Python project, pykpass, because I saw it on the Daily Python-URL this morning and it's in the Cheeseshop too. Nice work, Shuggie!

This was Shumon's first attempt at wrapping a C library in Python, and I got to help him with a few tiny bits. In the process, I learned way more about the Python C API than I previously knew. I'm very glad I got a chance to answer those few questions. I'd appreciate it if some more experienced pythonistas could have a look at the work and offer their feedback. Thanks!

We have in our toolbox another useful Python module that wraps parts of the Cyrus SASL library using Pyrex that wants to be open source (it's publically available if you know where to look). Sadly, nothing ever came of that "effort". I think the way to getting it done is now clear though...

Take care.

Native SNMPv3 in Python

2005-07-28T16:29:00.000-04:00

I bemoaned about the lack of SNMPv3 support in Python here. Well bemoan no more pythonistas because now we have it. You'll recall that Ilya Etingof received one of the three grants awarded by the PSF to do this work. So thanks to Ilya and thank you Python Software Foundation! Sadly, I haven't yet gotten around to actually trying it yet...

The Guac NOC : Mission Control for Avocados

2005-07-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

This is the coolest thing to happen to avocados ever. The Haas Avocado Board has launched avoHQ.com as part of its global avocado marketing campaign. Where else can you get near real time trend data for avocado market penetration? Make sure you watch their movie.

See also Marketing Web site tracks worldwide flow of avocados

Subterranean exploration, part 1

2005-07-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

Join me as I journey into the underground so that I may mine a shiny red gem from the depths of the Subway project.

Looking around, something sparkly has caught my eye. What could it be? Why it's ( *rolls dice* ) docstring view templates using the @subway.method_view decorator!

This jewel of a feature allows us to use the docstrings from the methods in our controllers as our view templates. Here's a simple example which shows this treasure off a bit:

    
    @subway.method_view
    def echo(word="subway", count=3):
        """
        <html><body>
        #for $echo in $echoes
            <p>$echo</p>
        #end for
        </body></html>
        """
        echoes = [word] * int(count)
        return echo.view()

Doesn't this seem like a quick and easy way to get a view written? Yes, I think that's the case. However, be warned that it doesn't support all the features that a real view provides. For example, the #extends feature from Cheetah isn't supported, while it is supported by a regular view.

Tune in next time for...something else!

Technorati Tags: cherrypy, python

django gets a shot of WSGI

2005-07-18T08:10:00.000-04:00

Noticed in my svn up this morning that django now as a WSGI handler. That means you won't have to run it with mod_python, nor apache for that matter. That'll make it much easier for people to start using it, and cut out half the converstation on #django, I think.

Technorati Tags: django, python

Guacamole on a Stick?

2005-07-15T22:27:00.000-04:00

Cheese stuffed, batter dipped, deep fried avocados! I'll take two please.

Technorati Tags: food, avocado

django: The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.

2005-07-15T07:20:00.000-04:00

Hello, django. Nice to meet you!

Technorati Tags: django, python

CherryPy, Subway, and Django news

2005-07-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Just spreading the word that the fun, easy to use, Python web framework, CherryPy, has released its 2.1 beta. It has come a long way since 2.0! Way to go team!

Given that is uses the above mentioned CherryPy as its controller, it is worth noting that the Subway project has released its first milestone here. You'll also find a simple example application called noteboard there that is an effective demonstration of some of Subway's nicest features. Yum!

Though promised to be out sometime this week, there's no sign of Django yet, but Adrian is presenting it to ChiPy tonight, so here's hoping we'll see something by tomorrow.

Take care.

Technorati Tags: cherrypy, python

Welcome back, Avocado eaters!

2005-07-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

Hello! And welcome back! It's been nearly four months since I closed the Avocado down. Since that time I've been t playing with small bits of python related web technologies like CherryPy and Subway. I'm gonna write about those things.

Since I last mentioned it, my friend's book, Higher Order Perl, was released and I even got a chance to read it. There's a ton of great stuff in there, but if you're a perl programmer, you'll find ways to make perl much more functional. If you're a python programmer, you'll probably walk away appreciating python even more than you did before. I know I did.

One last tidbit. A co-worker of mine wrote a python implementation of the perl module File:Tail. There are a few of them out there, but I suggested he put it on the cookbook anyway. It's filetail.py.

Take care.

p.s. I'm editing this so it lands on the python planet.

Technorati Tags: perl, puppy