Python Magazine

by Brandon Craig Rhodes

Are you tired of having to install a half-dozen Python packages by hand when you sit down to develop your favorite Python package on a new machine? Are your fellow developers tired of having to step through a tedious INSTALL.txt file before they can begin experimenting with your code? Then welcome to the world of ''zc.buildout'', where dependencies appear like magic, and haphazard setup procedures are replaced by sleek, safe, and repeatable automation.

by Reed Wade

Flickr is a terrific photo sharing and management service. It provides a large number of very useful ways to manage and view your photos. What it doesn't make very easy is a way to perform a bulk download of all the original photos and tagging information you've placed in their hands. In this article, Reed writes a simple script which leverages Beej's Python Flickr API to do exactly that.

by Steve Holden

The Python world is ruled by the language's inventor, Guido van Rossum, commonly known as the Benevolent Dictator for Life, or BDFL. In this interview with Steve Holden, Guido brings you up to date on what's been happening to him, and to Python, in the last four years.

by Doug Hellmann

Automated testing is an important part of Agile development methodologies, and the practice is seeing increasing adoption even in environments where other Agile tools are not used. This article discusses testing techniques for you to use with the open source tool Proctor. By using Proctor, you will not only manage your automated test suite more effectively, but you will also obtain better results in the process.

by Brian Jones

With so many cool articles in this month's issue, why would you want to read Brian's editorial?

by Mark Mruss

Over the past few years Google has expanded its services beyond those of a normal search engine. One of those new services is the Google Calendar. This article will provide an introduction to working with the Google Calendar using Python.

by Doug Hellmann

Old-school developers remember **lint**, the static code analysis tool for C programs. There are several similar programs available for Python, and they can all help you clean up your act.

by Steve Holden

How do we come to terms with change in an industry where change is the norm? In former centuries we had time to adjust as things changed, but nowadays the rate of change in many aspects of society is so fast that signs of dislocation are starting to occur.