Re: [Pythoncard-users] Re: Python distribution problems

[Phil E. <ph...@li...>]

On Tue, 2005-04-05 at 08:48, normanwinn wrote:
> ka wrote:
> > Secondly, once we have a viable 1.x release, I would like to have a 
> > single installer option for Python, wxPython, and PythonCard on the 
> > Windows platform
> 

hmmm...not sure I can fully see the benefit of this. You only need to
install these if you are planning to write your own apps, in which case
downloading and installing them individually wouldn't present any kind
of technical challenge.

For distributing finished applications, then I would contend that you
explicitly *don't* want to have to install Python/wxPython/PythonCard -
you should be using the existing tools to bundle up your program into an
installer.

> The very fact that you should need to contemplate this demonstrates the 
> severity of the problem. I already have versions of Python that came 
> with Zope, with Open Office, then I'll have another with PythonCard and 
> another with Dabo. Where will this stop? Each time I want to upgrade I 
> end up upgrading n versions of Python? This is folly.
> 
> What is the alternative? I can't have an answer as I am not at the 
> interior of an open source effort. Perhaps a standard test suite for 
> Python? Perhaps co-ordinated upgrade days? Perhaps sterner control over 
> the standard Python library?
> 

No, no, no, absolutely not. There is *no reason whatsoever* to have
multiple versions of Python on a machine, unless that is specifically
what you want for development purposes, etc.

> Then the exe tools. With py2exe I ended up with the tcl library in my 
> 'exe' package when compiling a command line tool! I don't know how many 
> megabytes I had to distribute. I didn't bother. I then found exemaker:
> 
> http://effbot.org/downloads/index.cgi/exemaker-1.2-20041012.zip/README
> 

If py2exe is anything like McMillan Installer, then whether to include
Tcl/TK is simply a command line option - it's set to 'on' by default due
to TkInter being the de-facto GUI library for Python for a long, long
time.

You've have made a number of valid and well-reasoned points in your
posts on this thread, but IMHO this one is just nit-picking. I think
you're just going to have to accept that the process of developing,
distributing and maintaining software to a 'professional' standard is
damned hard work, and then just make a decision as to whether to live
with that or not.

I must say, though, that I am enjoying this thread - it's probably the
most vigorous and refreshing discussion we've had on here for months,
well done Norman! ;-)

-- 

Regards

Phil Edwards
Brighton, UK