Re: [Webware-discuss] The 0.6 Release, Distributions and Applications

[Chuck E. <Chu...@ya...>]

At 04:28 PM 10/25/2001 +0000, pa...@bo... wrote:
>Chuck Esterbrook <Chu...@ya...> wrote:
> >
> >>I assume that 0.6 will:
> >>----------------------------------
> >>* fix the console hanging and socket binding problems that
> >>Jeff's been working on
> >
> >Those are either op sys or Python problems; not Webware. I'm not aware of
> >any outstanding work in this area other than providing convenient options
> >for discarding daemon output.
>
>Those issues really surprise me, and it's tempting to think that it's related
>to FreeBSD. From what I have heard in the past, I'd be too scared to run
>anything threaded on some of the BSDs. ;-) Having said that, it would be good
>to review the existing daemon startup/shutdown scripts.

It's not just tempting to think that: there is a Python script that 
reproduces the problem independent of Webware. And the script reproduces 
the problem on a particular BSD (I forget which one) but does not reproduce 
it on Mandrake Linux 8.1. Now Python may have different threading code on 
BSD and therefore be causing the problem, but Webware is out of the picture.

BTW OpenBSD, in particular, is where I have heard of various threading 
problems, separate from this issue.


> >>*** making the switch to distutills (probably requires a
> >>new package structure)
> >
> >Not high on my list. Compared to what other people are pining for (fixes,
> >URL handling, etc) this is small.
> >
> >Also, from what I know of Python, distutils and that *.pth thing, we
> >probably need to do little in terms of package structure. Webware
> >components are Python packages to begin with, after all.
>
>We just need someone who knows distutils to roll something up, I think.
>However, there are some major benefits in making installation as easy, as
>helpful and as comprehensive as possible. I had a look at SkunkWeb the other
>day, and its installation is based on a configure script; personally, I
>wouldn't recommend that over distutils - I have had some configure and 
>autoconf experience, myself.

The app server requires that you integrate with your web server and there 
isn't a whole lot we can do to automate that. Also, Webware really doesn't 
care where it lives in the file system, so copying it from point A to point 
B doesn't get you much closer to a production web site.

Everyone has a different config and different prefs for where files live, 
what adapters to use, etc. I suppose you could capture all that eventually, 
but it will be a long time before you can cover 90% of the users 
installation situations.


-Chuck