On Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 05:30:03PM +0200, Gregor Hoffleit wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 09:00:06PM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> > My semi-well-thought-out solution:
> > - python-* should provide a "Standard" Python for each Debian
> > release. 2.1.1 seems a sensible target for woody. These packages
> > should be invoked by /usr/bin/python and /usr/bin/pythonx.y
> > - python-* should (virtual) provide python-x.y-*.
> > - python-v.w-* (where v.w != x.y) can exist at the discretion of the
> > Python maintainer. Provides /usr/bin/pythonv.w
> > I recommend at least having 1.5.2 in woody. 2.0.1 may also be
> > useful. I don't see any good reason for us to ship 1.6.1.
> After banging my head a few times, and realizing time constraints, this
> currently looks to me like the most practical solution for woody:
> Simple rule of thumb: Each package that installs stuff in
> /usr/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages has to depend on python-X.Y-base.
The main thing is to get something that works within Debian.
You don't _have_ to support people putting weird versions of python in
their path; you can just say "if you want to use a different version of
python, build it as a .deb and install it, and resolve the dependencies
yourself" or "put it in /usr/local/pythonX.Y, but don't add it to your
path", or whatever.
Supporting all sorts of weird things that users might want to do is a
nice quality of implementation issue, but it's a long way from release
critical.
Which is to say, don't introduce a whole lot of RC bugs (this package
doesn't depend on that! this other one uses the wrong #! line!) if you
don't need to and can't fix them all yourselves in a single block, as
well as providing forward and backwards compatibility.
A solution that's ugly (that's five lines of Conflicts! Ewww!), but
that's timely and works is better than one that reeks of elegance but
takes a few months to get worked out.
Note also that python needs to be in basically its final form (no new
packages etc) and free of RC bugs by the end of next month. (It's in
standard now, thanks to reportbug)
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.
``_Any_ increase in interface difficulty, in exchange for a benefit you
do not understand, cannot perceive, or don't care about, is too much.''
-- John S. Novak, III (The Humblest Man on the Net)
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