The B-List: Latest entrieshttp://www.b-list.org/feeds/entries/2010-02-02T08:09:08ZJames BennettOn branching2010-02-02T08:09:08ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2010-02-02:/weblog/2010/feb/02/branching/
<p>Back in 2008 I <a href="/weblog/2008/jul/28/lets-talk-about-dvcs/">posted some rambling thoughts</a> on distributed version-control systems, largely in response to the huge amount of hype surrounding such tools (particularly git). Then at PyCon last year, amid even more hype as it was announced that Python will switch from Subversion to a distributed tool, I gave <a href="http://media.b-list.org/presentations/2009/pycon/dvcs.pdf">a lightning talk</a> reflecting on what I’d picked up and seen during the intervening eight months.
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<p>It’s now been a year and ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2010/feb/02/branching/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/fAkHJpuzesY" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/django-registration2009-10-14T02:26:23ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-10-14:/weblog/2009/oct/14/registration/
<p>So, life has been eventful lately. There was DjangoCon, which was awesome even though I came away deeply unhappy with how my talk turned out; due to a lot of hectic things going on, it fell far below the standard I usually like to enforce for myself. I’ve got a couple things cooking for PyCon, though, which will hopefully make up for it. Things are starting to ramp up for the Django 1.2 ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/oct/14/registration/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/K6N599C_WK8" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Let's talk about WSGI2009-08-10T05:31:44ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-08-10:/weblog/2009/aug/10/wsgi/
<p>Recently Armin Ronacher (whose <a href="http://lucumr.pocoo.org/">blog</a> you should be reading if you do anything at all involving Python and the web) has published a couple of <a href="http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2009/7/30/nih-in-the-wsgi-world">good</a> <a href="http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2009/8/5/pro-cons-about-werkzeug-webob-and-django">articles</a> poking at the current state of <acronym title="Web Server Gateway Interface"><span class="caps">WSGI</span></acronym>, the <a href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0333/">standard interface for Python web applications</a>. Some of his comments dovetail nicely into concerns I’ve been trying to put into words for a while now, so I’m glad he’s posting on the subject and providing some context ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/aug/10/wsgi/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/r3Jwt-8LpTE" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/On "magic", once again2009-07-23T08:31:13ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-07-23:/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/
<p>So it seems Giles Bowkett <a href="http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2009/07/do-you-believe-in-magic.html">is upset</a> about use of the word “magic”. I’m happy to agree with the general consensus from various fora that <a href="http://christopherroach.com/blog/i-hate-magic-why-django-rocks/">the specific article he’s complaining about</a> is, well, pretty much content-free. I could read that post over and over and still have no idea what actual things the author liked about Django or didn’t like about Rails. But I’ve pretty much learned to ignore content-free hype ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/aonMvxCapOA" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/When licenses attack2009-07-14T08:25:51ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-07-14:/weblog/2009/jul/14/licensing/
<p>Jacob <a href="http://jacobian.org/writing/gpl-questions/">posted twenty questions</a> about the <acronym title="GNU General Public License"><span class="caps">GPL</span></acronym>. Zed followed with <a href="http://zedshaw.com/blog/2009-07-13.html">an explanation</a> of why he placed <a href="http://lamsonproject.org/">Lamson</a> under the <span class="caps">GPL</span>. This has provoked some discussion around the internets, some of which I have read and some of which I’ve ignored.
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<p>Unfortunately, there’s a lot of noise drowning out useful discussion, much of it centered around alleging — directly or indirectly — that if you ask questions about how the <span class="caps">GPL</span> interacts with other licenses, you ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/14/licensing/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/FmJPuw_juSY" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/In pace requiescat2009-07-08T08:41:38ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-07-08:/weblog/2009/jul/08/xhtml/
<p>So the charter of the <acronym title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language"><span class="caps">XHTML</span></acronym> Working Group <a href="http://www.w3.org/2009/06/xhtml-faq">will be allowed to expire without renewal</a>. This is a source of consternation for <a href="http://www.zeldman.com/2009/07/02/xhtml-wtf/">some</a>, who feel that the <acronym title="World Wide Web Consortium"><span class="caps">W3C</span></acronym> is perhaps sending conflicting messages — how long until we find out that <acronym title="HyperText Markup Language"><span class="caps">HTML</span></acronym>5 isn’t <em>really</em> the future, either? — and, perhaps, smug “I told you so” satisfaction for <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/07/06/this-is-the-house">others</a>.
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<p>I have little to add to either of those camps, so what follows here is nothing more ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/08/xhtml/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/sTNONbeXx-Y" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/An update on the book2009-07-07T07:31:06ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-07-07:/weblog/2009/jul/07/code/
<p>So, the repository for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1430219386/">the second edition of Practical Django Projects</a> is not yet done, but due to the general clamor I’m opening up public access; you can browse it, or check out a copy of the code, from <a href="http://bitbucket.org/ubernostrum/practical-django-projects/">its page on Bitbucket</a>. You’ll probably want to have a look over the <span class="caps">README</span> file displayed on that page, since it provides helpful information on how the repository works.
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<p>Right now the first three ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/07/code/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/cUOI77tE0Gs" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/A fun little bug2009-06-26T02:04:45ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-06-26:/weblog/2009/jun/26/fun-little-bug/
<p>About two months ago, I quietly wrote and released <a href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-flashpolicies/">a little Django application which generates cross-domain policy files for Flash</a> (if you’ve never encountered this aspect of Flash, <a href="http://code.google.com/p/doctype/wiki/ArticleFlashSecurityCrossDomain">here’s an introductory article on how it works</a>). I’ve done a bit of hacking on it in my spare time, and I’m pretty happy with it as an example of a simple, tightly-focused application; sometime soon I hope to write a bit more ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jun/26/fun-little-bug/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/DHlwy8i1iZg" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Second edition2009-06-23T15:10:09ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-06-23:/weblog/2009/jun/23/second-edition/
<p>So just after lunch today a box arrived, containing copies of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1430219386/">the second edition of Practical Django Projects</a>, which went through final editing about a month ago (Apress tends to be pretty quick at getting the book printed and shipping). Since I assume that means other people will be getting copies of the book soon, I’d like to cover a couple important bits of information.
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<p>First of all, the second edition (as the cover ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jun/23/second-edition/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/PuzVSLF4xb0" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Slicehost is smarter than I am2009-06-03T18:05:01ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-06-03:/weblog/2009/jun/03/slicehost/
<p>So this afternoon I took a little break from running unit tests to head to the store and pick up a couple things. When I got back, I noticed I was no longer on <acronym title="Internet Relay Chat"><span class="caps">IRC</span></acronym>, and my client was reporting it couldn’t connect to the bouncer I run to stay online. I tried to <acronym title="Secure SHell"><span class="caps">SSH</span></acronym> in to see if the bouncer had died, and discovered I couldn’t connect.
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<p>And couldn’t ping the ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jun/03/slicehost/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/Zm7XUEfBIPc" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/PyCon ORM panel liveblog2009-03-28T13:06:13ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-03-28:/weblog/2009/mar/28/pycon-orm-panel/
<p>I’m sitting about five rows back in the ballroom at the Hyatt, waiting for the <acronym title="Object-Relational Mapper"><span class="caps">ORM</span></acronym> panel to begin.
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<p>Panel’s starting. Moderator Alex Gaynor introduces himself and panelists:
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<ul>
<li>
Guido van Rossum (App Engine)
</li>
<li>
Jacob Kaplan-Moss (Django)
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<li>
Massimo diPierro (web2py)
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<li>
Ian Bicking (SQLObject)
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<li>
Mike Bayer (SQLALchemy)
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</ul>
<h2>First question: brief history of your <span class="caps">ORM</span></h2>
<p>SQLALchemy: wanted to do a <span class="caps">CMS</span>, but never ended up writing it. Had idea for a modular library to talk to ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/mar/28/pycon-orm-panel/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/97OoocvN3E0" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Slides2009-03-28T13:04:36ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-03-28:/weblog/2009/mar/28/slides/
<p>For anyone who missed it: I gave a lightning talk during the morning session here at PyCon today, following up on <a href="/weblog/2008/jul/28/lets-talk-about-dvcs/">my earlier questions about distributed version control</a>. Slides are available <a href="http://media.b-list.org/presentations/2009/pycon/dvcs.pdf">as a <span class="caps">PDF</span></a>.
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<p>Next up: attempting to live-blog the <span class="caps">ORM</span> panel.
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<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/mar/28/slides/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/l6D49u1cySk" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Django 2.02009-01-18T17:37:54ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-01-18:/weblog/2009/jan/18/django-20/
<p>So apparently some folks doing business as “Vyper Logix Corp” are peddling a thing they call “Django 2.0”. I’m not going to link it here since they don’t deserve the Google bump, but if you’re interested you can <a href="http://twitter.com/jezdez/status/1128224563">follow the link in Jannis’ tweet where he mentioned it</a>. In fact, with any luck my Google juice will pop this article up above them.
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<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Django 2.0” is, apparently, built on the ...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jan/18/django-20/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/PZpMbjvEFKM" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Second editions galore2009-01-09T08:10:01ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-01-09:/weblog/2009/jan/09/practical-django/
<p>Adrian <a href="http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2009/01/09/0133">announced today</a> that he’s working on revising <cite>The Definitive Guide to Django</cite> to produce a second edition that covers Django 1.0, which is awesome news for anyone who’s used the book as a guide to learning Django.
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<p>In the same vein, I’d like to announce something that’s been unofficially mentioned a couple times but never fully clarified: I’m busy working on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1430219386/">the second edition of Practical Django Projects ...</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jan/09/practical-django/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/Xflb30wR9Ww" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Oldest files meme2009-01-03T12:17:44ZJames Bennetthttp://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2009-01-03:/weblog/2009/jan/03/meme/
<p>Doug Hellmann <a href="http://blog.doughellmann.com/2009/01/new-year-meme-what-are-oldest-files-in.html">has brought a meme to my attention</a>, and I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t act upon it.
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<p>Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Save a copy of this Python script, say as a file named <code>oldest.py</code>:
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<div class="typygmentdown"><pre><span class="c">#!/usr/bin/env python</span>
<span class="sd">"""Print last-modified times of files beneath '.', oldest first."""</span>
<span class="k">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">os.path</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">time</span>
<span class="n">paths</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">(</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">ds</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">fs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">os ...</span></pre></div>
<p><a href="http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jan/03/meme/">Read full entry and comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/b-list-entries/~4/vBbRsUfrHG0" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/