Getting Started with WSGI  Python 2.5 added support for the WSGI standard. This is a specification for web programming that allows interoperability between frameworks and components. It's also terribly easy to use. Jason Briggs introduces WSGI and gives the background you need to use it productively.   [Python]

Detecting Web Application Security Vulnerabilities  Your web application is only as secure as the data coming in, and how you treat user input determines how secure you are. A little bit of thought and Python programming can help you analyze potential vulnerabilities in your code; Shreeraj Shah demonstrates.   [Sysadmin]

What's New in Python 2.5  In 15 years, Python has grown out of its initial niche to evolve in new directions. The latest version, Python 2.5, adds and refines features on the way to Python 3000. Jeff Cogswell demonstrates the latest additions.   [Python]

Running a Sprint  Many agile development techniques apply to plenty of development models. One interesting approach for distributed development projects is the sprint--a short, directed programming effort with programmers all in the same room. Steve Holden, who organized the recent Python Need for Speed sprint, explains how they work.   [Python]

Unify and Synchronize Your iTunes Libraries  Last June, David Miller published an article that explained how to synchronize playlists on iTunes. Today, Matthew Russell extends this idea by investigating and presenting three different ways to synchronize the actual contents of your iTunes music libraries when they are scattered across multiple machines. Then in the second half of the article, Matthew lays the foundation for a custom Python script that you can extend across multiple platforms and in various other ways.   [Mac]

Using REST with Ajax  The RESTful view of the Web says to use HTTP's verbs--GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE--where appropriate. Yet most browsers support only GET and POST. How can you achieve RESTfulness without writing your own client? Nic Ferrier shows how to design a RESTful web application using Ajax and Python.   [Python]

Features
Introducing WSGI: Python's Secret Web Weapon, Part Two  In Part Two, James Gardner completes his introduction of WSGI, the new Python standard for building reusable web-framework components.   [XML.com]

Features
Introducing WSGI: Python's Secret Web Weapon  James Gardner introduces WSGI, the new Python standard for building reusable web-framework components, which just may turn out to be Python's secret web weapon.   [XML.com]

Building Decision Trees in Python  Python is a good language for machine learning--it's easy to express powerful algorithms maintainably, and it's flexible to experiment with new approaches. Christopher Roach demonstrates the use and implementation of decision trees, a fundamental feature of datamining, that can help you find trends in your data.   [Python]

Building Recursive Descent Parsers with Python  Someday your program will have to parse text. If you're lucky, a few regular expressions will handle it. Otherwise, you need to write a parser. Don't be afraid of that dragon book from college--writing a parser in Python is easy with Pyparsing. Paul McGuire explains everything you need to know.   [Python]

Profiling and Optimizing Python  Premature optimization is the root of all sorts of evil in programming, but meaningful and necessary optimization is vital to effective and efficient programming. When your Python program just doesn't perform, don't reach for C or C++ without first playing with the Python profiler. Jeremy Jones shows how to find and fix bottlenecks in your programs.   [Python]

Run Python Scripts on Your Nokia Smartphone  Most users do not need a full-blown programming platform to develop small hacks for their phones. A scripting language like Python is the perfect tool to automate simple tasks and perform simple logical processing. This excerpt from Nokia Smartphone Hacks shows you how to use Python to develop and run scripts for your Series 60 device.   [Python]

What Is TurboGears (Hint: Python-Based Framework for Rapid Web Development)  TurboGears is a Python-based framework that enables you to quickly build database-driven, ready-to-extend web applications. In this article, Matthew Russell takes you inside this framework for a look at its internal mechanisms, then introduces you to its creator, Kevin Dangoor.   [Mac]

Testing Web Apps Effectively with twill  There's a real drive toward testing these days. If you develop any sort of application seriously, you've likely heard recommendations to write comprehensive automated tests. Is that really useful? Michele Simionato explores the arguments for and against automated testing, and shows how to automate web app testing using Python and the twill utility.   [Python]

Interactive Debugging in Python  Debugging with print statements is alive and well. It's not the only way to do it, though. Python has a powerful interactive debugger that can let you get to the heart of your problem faster and more easily--if you know how to use it. Jeremy Jones shows off the features you absolutely must know.   [Python DevCenter]

Python and XML: Should Python and XML Coexist?  In his latest Python and XML column, Uche Ogbuji claims that the costs of using XML as a little language in a Python application may outweigh the benefits of doing so.   [XML.com]

Cooking with Python, Part 2  Recipes from part one of this two-part series of excerpts from Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition covered how to handle international text with Unicode and how to select elements from an unsorted sequence. In today's recipes, learn how to implement a ring buffer and how to compute prime numbers.   [ONLamp.com]

Cooking with Python, Part 1  In these sample recipes from Python Cookbook, Second Edition, learn how to use Unicode to handle international text strings that include non-ASCII characters, and how to select the nth smallest element of a sequence. Check back here next week for two more recipes on implementing a ring buffer and computing prime numbers.   [ONLamp.com]

Writing Google Desktop Search Plugins  Google recently released the source code of Kongulo, a plugin for the Google Desktop Search utility. Kongulo is useful on its own, but it's even better as an example of how to write your own plugins for GDS. Jeremy Jones explores the code and explains how it interacts with GDS.   [O'Reilly Network]

Important Notice for Python DevCenter Readers About O'Reilly RSS and Atom Feeds  O'Reilly Media, Inc. is rolling out a new syndication mechanism that provides greater control over the content we publish online. Here's information to help you update your existing RSS and Atom feeds to O'Reilly content.  [Python DevCenter]

Python Standard Logging  Tracking down what your application does seems easy; just add a few print statements here and there. Unfortunately, effectively tracing a program is more difficult. That's where Python's standard logging module comes in. Jeremy Jones demonstrates how to make it work for you.   [ONLamp.com]

Python on Your (S60) Phone  Nokia recently released a Python distribution that runs on Series 60 phones. Sure it's cool, but is it useful? John Littler walks through the available packages and the installation process, as well as some example Python code.   [ONLamp.com]

More Test-Driven Development in Python  The goal of test-driven development is not to produce tests; they're merely a helpful by-product. The real goal is to produce elegant, working code. Jason Diamond demonstrates how test-driven development can improve the design of code.   [ONLamp.com]