[Py-howto-checkins] CVS: pyhowto python-2.0.tex,1.37,1.38

SourceForge Headquarters 225 Broadway Suite 1600 San Diego, CA 92101 +1 (858) 422-6466

Update of /cvsroot/py-howto/pyhowto
In directory slayer.i.sourceforge.net:/tmp/cvs-serv31481

Modified Files:
	python-2.0.tex 
Log Message:
Various minor additions and clarifications, mostly suggested by Jeremy

Index: python-2.0.tex
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/py-howto/pyhowto/python-2.0.tex,v
retrieving revision 1.37
retrieving revision 1.38
diff -C2 -r1.37 -r1.38
*** python-2.0.tex	2000/10/12 02:49:12	1.37
--- python-2.0.tex	2000/10/12 03:04:22	1.38
***************
*** 30,34 ****
  better error messages went into 2.0; to list them all would be
  impossible, but they're certainly significant.  Consult the
! publicly-available CVS logs if you want to see the full list.

  % ======================================================================
--- 30,38 ----
  better error messages went into 2.0; to list them all would be
  impossible, but they're certainly significant.  Consult the
! publicly-available CVS logs if you want to see the full list.  This
! progress is due to the five developers working for 
! PythonLabs are now getting paid to spend their days fixing bugs,
! and also due to the improved communication resulting 
! from moving to SourceForge.

  % ======================================================================
***************
*** 89,98 ****
  commented on, revised by people other than the original submitter, and
  bounced back and forth between people until the patch is deemed worth
! checking in.  This didn't come without a cost: developers now have
! more e-mail to deal with, more mailing lists to follow, and special
! tools had to be written for the new environment.  For example,
! SourceForge sends default patch and bug notification e-mail messages
! that are completely unhelpful, so Ka-Ping Yee wrote an HTML
! screen-scraper that sends more useful messages.

  The ease of adding code caused a few initial growing pains, such as
--- 93,104 ----
  commented on, revised by people other than the original submitter, and
  bounced back and forth between people until the patch is deemed worth
! checking in.  Bugs are tracked in one central location and can be
! assigned to a specific person for fixing, and we can count the number
! of open bugs to measure progress.  This didn't come without a cost:
! developers now have more e-mail to deal with, more mailing lists to
! follow, and special tools had to be written for the new environment.
! For example, SourceForge sends default patch and bug notification
! e-mail messages that are completely unhelpful, so Ka-Ping Yee wrote an
! HTML screen-scraper that sends more useful messages.

  The ease of adding code caused a few initial growing pains, such as
***************
*** 103,110 ****
  acceptance or rejection, while +0 and -0 mean the developer is mostly
  indifferent to the change, though with a slight positive or negative
! slant.  The most significant change from the Apache model is that
! Guido van Rossum, who has Benevolent Dictator For Life status, can
! ignore the votes of the other developers and approve or reject a
! change, effectively giving him a +Infinity / -Infinity vote.

  Producing an actual patch is the last step in adding a new feature,
--- 109,117 ----
  acceptance or rejection, while +0 and -0 mean the developer is mostly
  indifferent to the change, though with a slight positive or negative
! slant.  The most significant change from the Apache model is that the
! voting is essentially advisory, letting Guido van Rossum, who has
! Benevolent Dictator For Life status, know what the general opinion is.
! He can still ignore the result of a vote, and approve or
! reject a change even if the community disagrees with him.

  Producing an actual patch is the last step in adding a new feature,
***************
*** 475,479 ****

  % ======================================================================
! \section{Optional Collection of Cycles}

  The C implementation of Python uses reference counting to implement
--- 482,486 ----

  % ======================================================================
! \section{Garbage Collection of Cycles}

  The C implementation of Python uses reference counting to implement
***************
*** 514,529 ****
  objects to be leaked.

! An experimental step has been made toward fixing this problem.  When
! compiling Python, the \verb|--with-cycle-gc| option can be specified.
! This causes a cycle detection algorithm to be periodically executed,
! which looks for inaccessible cycles and deletes the objects involved.
! A new \module{gc} module provides functions to perform a garbage
! collection, obtain debugging statistics, and tuning the collector's parameters.
! 
! Why isn't cycle detection enabled by default?  Running the cycle detection
! algorithm takes some time, and some tuning will be required to
! minimize the overhead cost.  It's not yet obvious how much performance
! is lost, because benchmarking this is tricky and depends crucially
! on how often the program creates and destroys objects. 

  Several people tackled this problem and contributed to a solution.  An
--- 521,541 ----
  objects to be leaked.

! Python 2.0 fixes this problem by periodically executing a cycle
! detection algorithm which looks for inaccessible cycles and deletes
! the objects involved.  A new \module{gc} module provides functions to
! perform a garbage collection, obtain debugging statistics, and tuning
! the collector's parameters.
! 
! Running the cycle detection algorithm takes some time, and therefore
! will result in some additional overhead.  It is hoped that after we've
! gotten experience with the cycle collection from using 2.0, Python 2.1
! will be able to minimize the overhead with careful tuning.  It's not
! yet obvious how much performance is lost, because benchmarking this is
! tricky and depends crucially on how often the program creates and
! destroys objects.  The detection of cycles can be disabled when Python
! is compiled, if you can't afford even a tiny speed penalty or suspect
! that the cycle collection is buggy, by specifying the
! \samp{--without-cycle-gc} switch when running the \file{configure}
! script.

  Several people tackled this problem and contributed to a solution.  An
***************
*** 619,626 ****
  and PR\#7'' in the April 2000 archives of the python-dev mailing list
  for the discussion leading up to this implementation, and some useful
! relevant links.
  % Starting URL:
  % http://www.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-April/004834.html

  Work has been done on porting Python to 64-bit Windows on the Itanium
  processor, mostly by Trent Mick of ActiveState.  (Confusingly,
--- 631,644 ----
  and PR\#7'' in the April 2000 archives of the python-dev mailing list
  for the discussion leading up to this implementation, and some useful
! relevant links.  
  % Starting URL:
  % http://www.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-April/004834.html

+ Note that comparisons can now also raise exceptions. In earlier
+ versions of Python, a comparison operation such as \code{cmp(a,b)}
+ would always produce an answer, even if a user-defined
+ \method{__cmp__} method encountered an error, since the resulting
+ exception would simply be silently swallowed.
+ 
  Work has been done on porting Python to 64-bit Windows on the Itanium
  processor, mostly by Trent Mick of ActiveState.  (Confusingly,
***************
*** 631,634 ****
--- 649,657 ----
  information.

+ Another new platform is Darwin/MacOS X; inital support for it is in
+ Python 2.0.  Dynamic loading works, if you specify ``configure
+ --with-dyld --with-suffix=.x''.  Consult the README in the Python
+ source distribution for more instructions.
+ 
  An attempt has been made to alleviate one of Python's warts, the
  often-confusing \exception{NameError} exception when code refers to a
***************
*** 1137,1142 ****
  patch-by-patch details.  

- % XXX gettext support
- 
  Brian Gallew contributed OpenSSL support for the \module{socket}
  module.  OpenSSL is an implementation of the Secure Socket Layer,
--- 1160,1163 ----
***************
*** 1202,1208 ****
  (Contributed by Gordon MacMillan and Moshe Zadka.)

  \item{\module{linuxaudiodev}:} Support for the \file{/dev/audio}
  device on Linux, a twin to the existing \module{sunaudiodev} module.
! (Contributed by Peter Bosch.)

  \item{\module{mmap}:} An interface to memory-mapped files on both
--- 1223,1235 ----
  (Contributed by Gordon MacMillan and Moshe Zadka.)

+ \item{\module{gettext}:} This module provides internationalization
+ (I18N) and localization (L10N) support for Python programs by
+ providing an interface to the GNU gettext message catalog library.
+ (Integrated by Barry Warsaw, from separate contributions by Martin von
+ Loewis, Peter Funk, and James Henstridge.)
+ 
  \item{\module{linuxaudiodev}:} Support for the \file{/dev/audio}
  device on Linux, a twin to the existing \module{sunaudiodev} module.
! (Contributed by Peter Bosch, with fixes by Jeremy Hylton.)

  \item{\module{mmap}:} An interface to memory-mapped files on both
***************
*** 1315,1320 ****
  The authors would like to thank the following people for offering
  suggestions on drafts of this article: Mark Hammond, Gregg Hauser,
! Fredrik Lundh, Detlef Lannert, Aahz Maruch, Skip Montanaro, Vladimir
! Marangozov, Guido van Rossum, Neil Schemenauer, and Russ Schmidt.

  \end{document}
--- 1342,1348 ----
  The authors would like to thank the following people for offering
  suggestions on drafts of this article: Mark Hammond, Gregg Hauser,
! Jeremy Hylton, Fredrik Lundh, Detlef Lannert, Aahz Maruch, Skip
! Montanaro, Vladimir Marangozov, Guido van Rossum, Neil Schemenauer,
! and Russ Schmidt.

  \end{document}