Re: when and why did python(-minimal) become essential?
On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 11:03:03AM +0100, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le lundi 30 janvier 2006 à 10:20 +1100, Matthew Palmer a écrit :
> > On Sun, Jan 29, 2006 at 02:58:05PM +0100, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> > > There have already been - admittedly sporadic - proposals to rewrite
> > > some key parts of the system, like the init scripts or adduser, in
> > > python. However, if the proponent knows from the beginning the
> > > implementation wouldn't be accepted because of the language it is
> > > written in, you can't expect him to start working on it.
> >
> > What's this "wouldn't be accepted" nonsense? Are you seriously suggesting
> > that, if someone rewrote adduser in Python, that it would be rejected by the
> > ftpmasters *because* it was written in Python?
>
> Yes, this is because all dependencies of a package must be of equal or
> higher priority. Having adduser depending on python would imply to
> increase the priority of python.
>
> > > Putting python in the set of required packages today would simply be a
> > > waste of resources. But accepting the idea of putting it in *if* a good
> > > enough application shows up is the necessary step to have the
> > > applications show up. Some people here are refusing it by principle.
> >
> > They're refusing it on the principle of "the cost/benefit ratio sucks". Not
> > a bad principle, as things go.
>
> The arguments I've heard most are not about that ratio. They're only
> about "but you can do it in perl!".
No, that's not true. You have read it that way, that's right; but that's
an entirely different matter altogether.
I haven't seen _anyone_ say "but it's possible to do in perl, so why
bother?" What I _have_ seen, is many people say "we have perl in base
already, adding python would result in base seriously growing in size,
so what's the benefit?", which is something entirely different.
The only reaction from you that I've seen thus far is "but Python is
much better than Perl!", which obviously attracts some knee-jerk
reactions. That doesn't mean there's no reasonable reason for rejecting
the idea of Python in base at this point in time.
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