Category Archives: Python

Python has a GIL, and lots of complainers

Posted on 2010-07-09 by Gustavo Niemeyer

I’ve just read a post by Brett Cannon where, basically, he complains about complainers. If you don’t know who Brett is, you’re probably not a heavy Python user. Brett is a very important Python core developer which has been around … Continue reading →

Posted in Erlang, Go, Python | 31 Comments

Mocker 1.0 for Python released!

Posted on 2010-06-20 by Gustavo Niemeyer

After a few years in development, version 1.0 of Mocker is now available! Check out the changes since 0.10.1, the supported features, or go straight to the download page.

Posted in Project, Python, Test | 4 Comments

Integrating IRC with LDAP and two-way SMSing

Posted on 2010-06-19 by Gustavo Niemeyer

A bit of history I don’t know exactly why, but I’ve always enjoyed IRC bots. Perhaps it’s the fact that it emulates a person in an easy-to-program way, or maybe it’s about having a flexible and shared “command line” tool, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Cloud, Erlang, Mobile, Project, Python | 1 Comment

Released editmoin 1.15

Posted on 2010-06-19 by Gustavo Niemeyer

Version 1.15 of editmoin is now available. The following changes were made: Moin used to work with numerical IDs for identification, and editmoin was still based on this model. This release adds support for direct authentication as available in current … Continue reading →

Posted in Project, Python | Leave a comment

The forgotten art of error checking

Posted on 2010-06-17 by Gustavo Niemeyer

I was just rambling randomly yesterday, in the usual microblogging platforms, about how result checking seems to be ignored or done badly. The precise wording was: It’s really amazing how little attention error handling receives in most software development. Even … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Go, Java, Lua, Perl, Python, Ruby, Snippet, Test | 10 Comments

Xpresser – Python library for GUI automation with image matching

Posted on 2010-05-18 by Gustavo Niemeyer

In a hurry? Go check it out! The context A while ago I found out about Sikuli, a very interesting project which allows people to script actions in GUIs based on screenshot excerpts. The idea is that you basically take … Continue reading →

Posted in Project, Python, Test | 10 Comments

The last 4 years (and the next N?)

Posted on 2009-11-25 by Gustavo Niemeyer

Some interesting changes have been happening in my professional life, so I wanted to share it here to update friends and also for me to keep track of things over time (at some point I will be older and will … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Cloud, Java, Project, Python | 5 Comments

Screwing up Python compatibility: unicode(), str(), and bytes()

Posted on 2009-07-02 by Gustavo Niemeyer

Backwards and forwards compatibility is an art. In the very basic and generic form, it consists in organizing the introduction of new concepts while allowing people to maintain existing assets working. In some cases, the new concepts introduced are disruptive, … Continue reading →

Posted in Python | 19 Comments

Changing people or changing rules

Posted on 2009-05-16 by Gustavo Niemeyer

In my previous post I made an open statement which I’d like to clarify a bit further: (…) when the rules don’t work for people, the rules should be changed, not the people. This leaves a lot of room for … Continue reading →

Posted in C/C++, Java, Python | Leave a comment

Class member access control: enforcement vs. convention

Posted on 2009-05-15 by Gustavo Niemeyer

For a long time I’ve been an advocate of Python’s notion of controlling access to private and protected members (attributes, methods, etc) with conventions, by simply naming them like “_name”, with an initial underline.  Even though Python does support the … Continue reading →

Posted in C/C++, Java, Python | 24 Comments