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Text File | 1996-04-09 | 12.5 KB | 310 lines

PYTHON 1.3 Released April 7, 1996. NOTES ON THE AMIGA PORT. Conversion and Amiga specific code by Irmen de Jong. (Original code by Guido van Rossum and others) EMAIL: irmen@cs.vu.nl WWW: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~irmen/ Read the file <DISCL_and_COPYRIGHT>! It contains the disclaimer for this software, and copyright notices. Contents: ~~~~~~~~~ 1. What's new? 2. General remarks. 3. Troubleshooting. 4. Future. 5. Modification history. +----------------------+ | | | 1. What's new? | | | +----------------------+ IMPORTANT CHANGES SINCE THE PREVIOUS VERSION: (13-Dec-95) Short: - Networking support through AmiTCP (Python also works if you do not have AmiTCP, but no networking for you then) - New crypt, password and group modules. They only need the usergroup.library, not the whole AmiTCP package. - Many new builtin modules and library files - Changes & improvements in amiga module - Changes & improvements in amigapath module - Full unix compatible stat module - Improved timezone (taken from locale prefs instead of ENV:TZ) - Improved environment module - Bugfixes - Slight speed improvement - Multiuser chat server demo source included - Installer® utility no longer included. You can find it on your orignal installation disks that came with your computer. Copy it to your C: directory. - Only 20Kb larger! VERY IMPORTANT: Networking support (through AmiTCP)! The python binary is now compiled with AmiTCP support. The interpreter still works even if you don't have AmiTCP, but the extra functionality (most importantly, the socket module) can't be used without AmiTCP (obviously). Some extra functions already work if you only have the usergroup.library, and not the full AmiTCP package: the crypt, pwd and grp modules for instance. A MultiuserFileSystem-compatible usergroup.library can be found on Aminet (didn't try it -- beware). Usergroup.library can also be found in the demo version of AmiTCP, which is also on Aminet. MANY NEW MODULES! A whole lot of `new' builtin modules are included in this release. Check the module list below to see what is offered. This version implements a lot more functions than the previous release, and is only about 20Kb larger! I even included the math.hypot function. Also there are more library files because of the new builtin modules. This includes a simple http-server, and a simple FTP client. CHANGES IN AMIGA MODULE! os.environ (that is, amiga.environ) used to contain both global environment variables (from ENV:) and local shell variables. This has been changed; a new attribute os.shellvars (that is, amiga.shellvars) now contains the local shell variable dictionary. This now includes the 'RC' and 'Result2' variables! Moreover, the amiga.shellaliases dictionary now contains the aliases defined in the shell! Also, the amiga.pipe function has been removed. It is useless without threads. Mind that the amiga.popen function still exists! Removed the dangerous amiga._exit function. You are very stupid if you used it. CHANGES IN AMIGAPATH MODULE! os.path.expanduser (that is, amigapath.expanduser) fixed. Works 100% if usergroup.library is present. Otherwise, ~user/ expansion doesn't work, but ~/ does. os.path.split (that is, amigapath.split) CHANGED. (Suggested by Kent Polk, kent@eaenki.nde.swri.edu) The documentation for this function now becomes: (taken from the source) " Split a path in head (everything up to the last '/' or ':') and tail (the rest). If the path ends in '/' or ':', tail will be empty. If there is no '/' or ':' in the path, head will be empty. DIFFERENCE WITH posixpath: only ONE trailing '/' will be stripped from head! (on the Amiga a double slash means "parent dir"! ) This means that if head ends in a '/', you MUST add a '/' to it when reconstructing the path, or you will lose the "parent dir" slash. Functions that depend on this function are also affected! (basename, dirname) " CHANGED STAT MODULE! Because Python is now compiled with AmiTCP support, we also get the bonus of a more Unix-compatible stat() and lstat(). Therefore, lib/stat.py has been replaced by the the default stat module. TIMEZONE IMPROVED! As another side-effect of linking in AmiTCP stuff, Python now extracts the timezone information from your current locale preferences. No need anymore for a TZ environment var. (One small problem: the name of the timezone is no longer known, and is replaced by '???'.) If the locale prefs couldn't be read, the timezone information is taken from ENV:TZ, which must be a string like 'MET-1' (MET, -1 hour from GMT). IMPROVED ENVIRONMENT MODULE! The environment module now contains the following functions: putenv - old. (is setenv("name","value",1)) Called as putenv("name","value") putenv2 - new. Implements unix putenv(3) Called as putenv2("name=value") getenv - new. Implements unix getenv(3) Called as value=getenv("name") setenv - new. Implements unix setenv(3) Called as setenv("name","value",overwrite?) unsetenv - new. Implements unix unsetenv(3) Called as unsetenv("name") NOTE: all these operate on GLOBAL environment variables (ENV:) only! The following three functions are Amiga specific. They operate on "local" variables (the shell-vars) and not on the global ENV: vars: setvar - new. setenv on local var only ('set') Called as setvar("name","value",overwrite?) getvar - new. getenv on local var only ('get') Called as value=getvar("name") unsetvar - new. unsetenv on local var only ('unset') Called as unsetvar("name") BUGFIXES! Most important: the environment module contained a reference count bug, which caused python to crash upon exit if you used putenv. Fixed. Also, the check for a ".pyc" file extension was case sensitive, so for example "test.PYC" wasn't recognised as a precompiled program. Fixed. I also fixed a "undefined-data-in-socket-address-structure" bug in the socket module (Caused AmiTCP to behave VERY strange). Last: Python can now be run directly from Workbench, no need for iconx anymore. +----------------------+ | | | 2. General remarks | | | +----------------------+ * All tests in Lib/test ran successfully with my version. To try it yourself, type: cd Python:lib/test //Python (now enter `import autotest' at the prompt. Should report 'all tests OK') * To check some command line options, use the -? option, or any other unrecognised option. * The default PYTHONPATH is ";Python:lib", thus when looking for modules, python first checks the current directory, then Python:lib. By setting the global environment variable PYTHONPATH to f.i. "WORK:pylib", the module search path becomes WORK:pylib, then the current directory, then Python:lib. * The `Docs' directory contains 2 text files regarding regular expression syntax, and some other documents. You might want to copy other python documentation in here. * The following modules are built in into this release: amiga, array, binascii, crypt, environment, grp, imp, marshal, math, md5, new, pwd, regex, rotor, select, socket, soundex, strop, struct, sys, syslog, time. Amiga specific: amiga (amiga version of posix module) Needs usergroup.library: crypt, grp, pwd. Needs AmiTCP's bsdsocket.library: select, socket, syslog. New since previous release (13-dec-95): crypt, grp, md5, pwd, rotor, select, socket, soundex, syslog. Check the python documentation to see what each module offers. * For a detailed description of the changes I made to the original Python sources, read the AMIGA_CHANGES file. * Mail me if you encounter any Amiga specific problems, or if you have any Amiga related questions about Python, or just for fun. More general questions are better asked on the usenet newsgroup comp.lang.python. A lot of information, including an online manual, can be obtained from <http://www.python.org/> or <http://www.cwi.nl/www.python.org/> if your site is close to the Netherlands. Read the FAQ before asking! +-----------------------+ | | | 1. Troubleshooting | | | +-----------------------+ * When I try to install Python, I get "Unable to open your tool 'installer'"! The Installer® utility is no longer included in the archive. You can find it on your original installation disks that came with your computer (or copy it from somewhere else). You must copy it to your C: directory, or somewhere else where the Workbench can find it. * When I start python, I get "This program requires a math co-processor"! You have installed the wrong version. Choose the version with IEEE math. * Python seems so slow! This is because Python is an interpreted language. Some programs execute slow because of this. Other programs can run fast, because they are written better, or make heavy use of the fast built-in (compiled) modules. * I get "Couldn't open bsdsocket.library" or "Couldn't open usergroup.library" errors! You are trying to use functions that need one of these libraries. AmiTCP is required if you want to use all (network) functions. * Python crashes when executing complex (recursive) code! Your stack size is too low. Python sets it's stack to 15K if your stack size setting is less than that. In some (rare) cases, 15K may not be enough. Increase the stack size in such cases. The needed stack depends on the complexity of the program. Python was compiled without dynamic stack-checking because I didn't want to slow it down. IMPORTANT: Please let me know if you find an error, encounter problems, or have any suggestions! But, as I do this in my spare time, don't expect miracles... +----------------------+ | | | 4. Future | | | +----------------------+ Currently I am busy extending the interpreter with an API to the Amiga shared libraries. In the end this will result in a bunch of modules, one for each library, providing the Amiga Python programmer with an interface to the Amiga shared libraries. Because I ran into some problems regarding C structures, C strings and C pointers, and their integration into Python, the release of all this is delayed some time (unknown). Sorry. I intend to add support for I-Net 225, another networking package. This will result in 2 binaries, one for AmiTCP and one for I-Net 225. +---------------------------+ | | | 5. Modification history | | | +---------------------------+ 10 dec. 1995 - 1st public release. 13 dec. 1995 - 2nd public release. Darn. 1st version was compiled with a wrong version of memory pools library (Caused crash/wrong behavior on anything less than Kick 3.0) -- FIXED (uses amiga.lib now). 10 jan. 1996 - internal * Phew. Added (a lot of) prototypes; the whole thing now compiles with register arguments instead of stack arguments! * Removed binascii module (who uses this?) * Implemented os.popen and os.pipe (though the latter is of very little use without fork() or threads). * Implementes os.execv using Execute(). A bit of a hack; python only quits after the new command finished. 18 feb. 1996 - internal * Got Amiga shared library interface (amigalibs module) to work. That is: LVOs can be called. Not very functional yet. 2 apr. 1996 - internal * Added AmiTCP support! * Added many builtin modules, including binascii ;) * amigapath.py library module (os.path) changed, especially the split function and the expanduser function. Check the source for details. * Replaced lib/stat.py by original version (Unix-compatible) * Fixed typo in 'usage' text ('colon separated'->'semicolon separated') * Some bugfixes. Most notably in environment module, and socket module. * Enhanced environment module. * Removed amiga.pipe (it is useless without threads) and amiga._exit. Separated global & local environment dictionaries, and added a shell aliases dictionary. 7 apr. 1996 - 3rd public release. * Some minor changes. Fixed startup code to work with memory pools, also when started from Workbench. * Improved Installer® script. Irmen de Jong (irmen@cs.vu.nl)