Re: [Visualpython-users] Installer issues

[Arthur <ajs...@op...>]

> for those who have never used Python, and one for Python experts.
> Ideally, (though Bruce has pointed out the practical difficulties of
> doing this) the novice installation package should contain everything
> needed to get started (Python, VPython, Numarray, etc.).

Again - I am not as far off from that thinking as might be surmised.  I
would like to get PyGeo in the hands as many folks as possible - its quite
cool, IMO - and do not want to limit the audience to geeks of any stripe.
So an all-in-one environment - that includes Python itself - is an
alternative that interests me as well.  The additional upside, if its
configured not to interfere with anything that might already exist on
anyone's machine, is that there would be alot of freedom to do things like
configure a IDE and help files specific to VPython.  I already have, for
example, a working compilation of a nice open source editor - ScITE -
configured for the syntax hightlighting of PyGeo keywords.  Easy enough to
do that for VPython.  (Frankly I think that VPython should unmarry itself
from IDLE.  There are a lot of alternatives, free and open source, that
might be explored.)

But I also agree with Bruce that a line needs to be drawn as to what
platforms will be supported.  The all-in-one distribution, for example,
might sensibly have more limited platform support than the distutils based
distribution, for example.

For my purposes Windows would be the target of the all-in-one distro.  I do
understand the importance of Apple in the educational community - but don't
know enough about it to comment about what is appropriate there.  Other than
understanding that Linux compatibility is being achieved.

But an effort at an all-in-one Linux distribution seems to me a bad idea.
Though it is probably achievable in some reasonable way if limited to let's
say a version or two of Redhat and compatables, and done via rpm.

And again, I certainly think there should be a good distribution for those
"in the loop" as to geeky kinds of things.

 There is no reason those folks will not appreciate VPython, and are the
ones likely to help create a community capable of sustaining and extending
it.

Some of the recent demos posted up to VPython gives a good idea of the kinds
of things it is capable of in experienced hands.

Art