Brevé is “a Python template engine that is designed to be clean and elegant with minimal syntax.”

According to the site, it’s inspired by Nevow Stan. There’s also a Brevé vs Myghty comparison.

Parallel Python (aka PP) is, “a python module which provides mechanism for parallel execution of python code on SMP (systems with multiple processors or cores) and clusters.”

Brandon Corfman is doing a full week of Komodo hacks:

Komodo is my favorite Python IDE. Since ActiveState has recently released their new Komodo 4.0, I’ve decided to publish a full week of Komodo Toolbox commands and macros that should prove useful for Python developers.

Sound like it could be cool.

The other day I mentioned that I’d like to be able to use mysql-python with Python 2.5 on Windows. It turns out that this is no small task.

After some hunting around, it looks like mysql-python has fallen into a state of being poorly maintained and development is now limited to “one dude who no longer uses Windows.” Thus, no Windows releases should be expected in the near future.

Tonight I took a quick look at what is required to compile it myself. It turns out that that too is no small task…

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Yolk is “a Python library and command-line tool for obtaining information about packages installed by setuptools and packages on PyPI (Python Package Index a.k.a. The Cheese Shop)”

It would appear that if you want to run mysql-python on Windows with binaries compiled for Python 2.5 you are out of luck. If you use the 2.4 installer on SourceForge, you get the following error:

According to some forum threads, there appears to be some disagreement between Python and MySQL as to who’s responsibility it is to get it working with Python 2.5. And both that thread and others say that “everybody is running on glue code from one guy on Sourceforge, and he’s having problems keeping up.” And it sounds like getting the older releases to work is problematic as well.

Definitely an unfortunate situation. If someone has figured out how to get this to work, I’d be very anxious to hear about it. I’m assuming I’m missing something simple here.

Otherwise… what’s the alternative? Switch to PostgreSQL perhaps?

Update: I took a shot at compiling mysql-python on Windows…

Yesterday I commented on the release of ActiveState Komodo IDE 4.0 and mentioned that I’m apparently no longer the market for their product due to its price.

Three ActiveState employees were kind enough to take the time to leave some comments on that post attempting to clarify the situation, and to provide some assurance that Komodo Edit will indeed be free for the foreseeable future. Very cool. It’s always a good sign for a company when they take the time to respond to comments about their products.

That said, I’m not sure that releasing Komodo Edit for free really changes things much. Komodo’s editor is nice enough, but there’s no shortage of editors… including some rather nice F/OSS ones. What made Komodo appealing was the easy-to-use debugger that allowed you to quickly run and test Python scripts without switching applications. Without at least some form of debugging, it’s just another editor (albeit a very nice one).

I guess my feeling is that at $35 Komodo Personal was an absolute steal for a top notch Python IDE, and I recommended it to those in #python looking for an easier way to code. In fact, I would have gladly paid almost twice that much for it. But at $245 (or $295!) I find it hard to imagine that anyone other than businesses and/or those who code for a living would pay for it.

ActiveState has always seemed to me to be a good company, and one that has done a lot to promote Python as a language. I truly hope this is a good decision on their part, because I’d like nothing more than to see them succeed…

…but I know at least one person that won’t be upgrading to 4.0.

Related Post: Komodo IDE is really expensive

Elsewhere: Some kind words for Komodo here and here.

I’ve been using Komodo as my IDE of choice from the beginning. I was able to get a copy of the Personal edition for free using a promo code, and was very impressed. It had, in my opinion, a nice clean interface and all of the features someone like me would need. A top quality product that I would have gladly paid for. I even made a point to mention it when I could.

Then today I noticed that Komodo IDE 4.0 and Komodo Edit 4.0 have been released. I figured I would buy the latest version of the IDE, but then I noticed the price… it went from about $35 for the Personal Edition to $245! Yeow!

Even the upgrade price from Komodo Personal is $145.

Now, I realize they are free to set their price as they see fit. That’s cool. I’m sure there’s a market for their product… but I’m just a bit disappointed that I’m apparently not in it. Oh well.

Update: Please see the comments from the ActiveState folks below, and then read my follow-up post.

Portable Python allows you to run Python “directly from a portable device, enabling you to have, at any time, portable programming environment.” It’s a single zip file and is based on Python 2.5.

And the cool part is that it includes Django!

Update: So I loaded Portable Python 1.0 to try it out, and so far I’m very impressed. It was a snap to install (just unzip) and it comes with a “script runner” that makes testing applications easy:

I think this has just earned a spot on my portable drives. :)

Want to download videos from YouTube? Check out youtube-dl. It’s written in Python, so it should run on any platform.

Related: YouTube API