Guido Van Rossum on PYTHON 3 Get Your Sleep From
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JavaScript | Inform 6 & 7 | Falcon | Sleep | Enlightenment | PHP LINUX JOURNAL ™ THE STATE OF LINUX AUDIO SOFTWARE LANGUAGES Since 1994: The Original Magazine of the Linux Community OCTOBER 2008 | ISSUE 174 Inform 7 REVIEWED JavaScript | Inform 6 & 7 | Falcon | Sleep Enlightenment PHP Audio | Inform 6 & 7 Falcon JavaScript Don’t Get Eaten HP Media by a Grue! Vault 5150 Scalent’s Managing Virtual Operating PHP Code Environment Guido van Rossum on PYTHON 3 Get Your Sleep from OCTOBER Java www.linuxjournal.com 2008 $5.99US $5.99CAN 10 ISSUE Martin Messner Enlightenment E17 Insights from SUSE’s Lightweight Alternative 174 + Security Team Lead to KDE and GNOME 0 09281 03102 4 MULTIPLY ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND MAXIMIZE COOLING. THE WORLD’S FIRST QUAD-CORE PROCESSOR FOR MAINSTREAM SERVERS. THE NEW QUAD-CORE INTEL® XEON® PROCESSOR 5300 SERIES DELIVERS UP TO 50% 1 MORE PERFORMANCE*PERFORMANCE THAN PREVIOUS INTEL XEON PROCESSORS IN THE SAME POWERPOWER ENVELOPE.ENVELOPE. BASEDBASED ONON THETHE ULTRA-EFFICIENTULTRA-EFFICIENT INTEL®INTEL® CORE™CORE™ MICROMICROARCHITECTURE, ARCHITECTURE IT’S THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION FOR MANAGING RUNAWAY COOLING EXPENSES. LEARN WHYWHY GREAT GREAT BUSINESS BUSINESS COMPUTING COMPUTING STARTS STARTS WITH WITH INTEL INTEL INSIDE. INSIDE. VISIT VISIT INTEL.CO.UK/XEON INTEL.COM/XEON. RELION 2612 s 1UAD #ORE)NTEL®8EON® RELION 1670 s 1UAD #ORE)NTEL®8EON® PROCESSOR PROCESSOR s 5SERVERWITHUPTO4" s )NTEL@3EABURG CHIPSET s )DEALFORCOST EFFECTIVE&ILE$" WITH-(ZFRONTSIDEBUS APPLICATIONS s 5PTO'"2!-IN5CLASS s 2!32ELIABILITY !VAILABILITY LEADINGMEMORYCAPACITY 3ERVICEABILITY s -ANAGEMENTFEATURESTOSUPPORT LARGECLUSTERDEPLOYMENTS 34!24).'!4$2429.00 34!24).'!4$1969.00 Penguin Computing provides turnkey x86/Linux clusters for high performance technical computing applications. Penguin’s Relion line of rackmount servers is based on the latest Intel chipsets and processors. Relion 2612 and 1670 are just a few examples of our complete product line. We offer a full range of rackmount servers, interconnect fabrics, storage solutions, Scyld cluster management www.PenguinComputing.com software, and integration services. Please visit our Web site or contact our sales team 501 2nd Street, Ste. 310 for further details. San Francisco Ca 94107 1-888-PENGUIN (736-4846) ,QWHOLVQRWUHVSRQVLEOHIRUDQGKDVQRWYHULÀHGDQ\VWDWHPHQWV RUFRPSXWHUV\VWHPSURGXFWVSHFLÀFFODLPVFRQWDLQHGKHUHLQ 1. Performance measured using SPECjbb2005*, SPECjbb2005*/SysWatt, comparing a Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor E5345-based platform to a Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5160-based platform. © 2008 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel. Leap ahead., the Intel. Leap ahead. logo, Intel Core, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. © 2008 Penguin Computing and Relion are registered trademarks of Penguin Computing, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. OCTOBER 2008 CONTENTS Issue 174 FEATURES 54 INTERVIEW WITH GUIDO VAN ROSSUM The new Python 3000 is bounding beyond Python 2. Python creator Guido van Rossum explains why you’ve got to try it. James Gray 60 A TALE OF TWO LANGUAGES Not all programming languages are created for automating spreadsheets and device drivers— some, like Inform 6 and 7, were created specifically for making games. Daniel Bartholomew 64 SHELL SCRIPTING WITH A DISTRIBUTED TWIST: USING THE SLEEP SCRIPTING LANGUAGE A language for practical extraction and reporting with mobile agents? Raphael Mudge 72 THE FALCON PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE IN A NUTSHELL Messages can carry anything, including methods or whole Sigma sequences for remote execution in foreign objects. Giancarlo Niccolai ON THE COVER • The State of Linux Audio Software, p. 78 • Inform 7—Don't Get Eaten by a Grue!, p. 60 • Managing PHP Code, p. 86 • Guido van Rossum on Python 3, p. 54 • Get Your Sleep from Java, p. 64 • HP Media Vault 5150, p. 46 • Scalent's Virtual Operating Environment, p. 50 • Martin Messner—Insights from SUSE's Security Team Lead, p. 30 • Enlightenment E17—Lightweight Alternative to KDE and GNOME, p. 92 2 | october 2008 www.linuxjournal.com OCTOBER 2008 CONTENTS Issue 174 COLUMNS INDEPTH 8 SHAWN POWER’S 78 STATE OF THE ART: LINUX CURRENT_ISSUE.TAR.GZ AUDIO 2008, PART II 10 PRINT "Hello World"’ 20 Dave Phillips weighs in on the GOTO 10 production side of music and sound software for Linux. 18 REUVEN M. LERNER’S Dave Phillips AT THE FORGE Unobtrusive JavaScript 24 MARCEL GAGNÉ’S COOKING WITH LINUX Imaginary Languages 46 HP MEDIA VAULT 5150 Next Month 86 THE WELL-TEMPERED PHP DEVELOPER PHP developers can get a comfortable, HIGH-PERFORMANCE powerful environment with Eclipse COMPUTING plus some well-chosen plugins. 28 DAVE TAYLOR’S Federico Kereki High-performance computing WORK THE SHELL means a lot more than fast CPUs in your desktop. If you Movie Trivia—Finally! 92 ENLIGHTENMENT—THE want to do some serious number NEXT GENERATION OF crunching, you need some serious MICK BAUER’S 30 LINUX DESKTOPS processing power. Next month PARANOID PENGUIN Discover E, and unlock the secrets is our HPC issue, and we tell Interview with Marcus Meissner of Enlightenment. you all about the Roadrunner Jay Kruizenga supercomputer, massively parallel 36 KYLE RANKIN’S computing with CUDA and even HACK AND / squeaking some extra oomph from Wii Will Rock Linux REVIEWS the GPU with general-purpose 46 LOAD ME UP, LOAD ME DOWN programming languages. 96 DOC SEARLS’ Dan Sawyer EOF If petaflops and clusters are your Why We Need Hackers to Fix bread and butter, November will Health Care 50 REVIEW OF SCALENT’S be an issue that will make your VIRTUAL OPERATING mouth water. Add in our regular ENVIRONMENT cast of columnists and product IN EVERY ISSUE Logan G. Harbaugh reviews, and it will be an issue you won’t want to miss! 8 LETTERS 14 UPFRONT 40 NEW PRODUCTS 42 NEW PROJECTS USPS LINUX JOURNAL (ISSN 1075-3583) (USPS 12854) is published monthly by Belltown Media, Inc., 2211 Norfolk, Ste 514, Houston, 81 ADVERTISERS INDEX TX 77098 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Houston, Texas and at additional mailing offices. Cover price is $5.99 US. Sub scrip tion rate is $29.50/year in the United States, $39.50 in Canada and Mexico, $69.50 elsewhere. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Linux Journal, PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098. Subscriptions start with the next issue. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #41549519. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 4 | october 2008 www.linuxjournal.com lj027:lj018.qxd 7/17/2008 6:35 PM Page 1 The Straight Talk People SM SINCE 1991 ABERDEEN MIRROR MIRROR IN THE RACK 4-DRIVE 1U ABERNAS 8-DRIVE 2U ABERNAS Up to 4TB Capacity Up to 8TB Capacity • Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor • Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 300W Power Supply • 500W Redundant Power • From 1TB to 4TB • From 2TB to 8TB $ $ Starting at 2,495 Starting at 3,995 16-DRIVE 3U ABERNAS 24-DRIVE 5U ABERNAS Up to 16TB Capacity Up to 24TB Capacity • Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors • Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 650W Redundant Power • 950W Redundant Power • Quad LAN and SAS Expansion • Quad LAN and SAS Expansion • From 8TB to 16TB • From 12TB to 24TB $ $ Starting at 7,995 Starting at 10,495 32-DRIVE 6U ABERNAS 40-DRIVE 8U ABERNAS Up to 32TB Capacity Up to 40TB Capacity • Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors • Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 2GB DDR2 Memory • 1350W Redundant Power • 1350W Redundant Power • Quad LAN and SAS Expansion • Quad LAN and SAS Expansion • From 16TB to 32TB • From 20TB to 40TB $ $ Starting at 13,495 Starting at 15,995 Features & Benefits: • With available NAS-to-NAS Mirroring and Auto-Failover over LAN • Native Linux-based OS featuring iSCSI • Supports SMB, CIFS, NFS, AFP, FTP • DOM-based (Disc-On-Module) OS • Independent Data Drive RAID • RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 Configurable • Convenient USB Key for Recovery • NAS-2-NAS Replicator • PCBackup Utility • iSCSI Target Capable • All 3U+ models support expansion via cost effective JBODs “Aberdeen surpasses HP … markedly higher scores … AberNAS 128 boasts outstanding features” Network Computing—Aberdeen AberNAS 128 Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Pentium, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. For terms and conditions, please see www.aberdeeninc.com/abpoly/abterms.htm. lj027 888-297-7409 www.aberdeeninc.com/lj027 Executive Editor Jill Franklin [email protected] Associate Editor Shawn Powers [email protected] Senior Editor Doc Searls [email protected] Art Director Garrick Antikajian [email protected] Products Editor James Gray [email protected] Editor Emeritus Don Marti [email protected] Technical Editor Michael Baxter [email protected] Senior Columnist Reuven Lerner [email protected] Chef Français Marcel Gagné [email protected] Security Editor Mick Bauer [email protected] Contributing Editors David A. Bandel • Ibrahim Haddad • Robert Love • Zack Brown • Dave Phillips • Marco Fioretti Ludovic Marcotte • Paul Barry • Paul McKenney • Dave Taylor • Dirk Elmendorf Proofreader Geri Gale Publisher Carlie Fairchild [email protected] General Manager Rebecca Cassity [email protected] Director of Sales Laura Whiteman [email protected] Regional Sales Manager Joseph Krack [email protected] Circulation Director Mark Irgang [email protected] System Administrator Mitch Frazier [email protected] Webmistress Katherine Druckman [email protected] Accountant Candy Beauchamp [email protected] Linux Journal is published by, and is a registered trade name of, Belltown Media, Inc. PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098 USA Reader Advisory Panel Brad Abram Baillio • Nick Baronian • Hari Boukis • Caleb S. Cullen • Steve Case Kalyana Krishna Chadalavada • Keir Davis • Adam M. 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