[Python-Dev] HP-UX clean-up

[Cameron Laird]

Python generation for HP-UX is broken.  I want to fix it.

Do I need to make the case for the first proposition?  I think
the threading problems are widely recognized ...  This isn't
an accusation of moral turpitude, incidentally; it just hasn't
worked out to solve HP-UX difficulties, for plenty of legiti-
mate reasons.  I understand that.

I happened to try a vanilla generation of 2.3.3 under HP-UX 
10.20 yesterday, and encountered multiple non-trivial faults
(curses, threading, ...).  Experience tells me I'd find roughly
the same level of problems with other releases of Python and
HP-UX.

Do I need to make the case that fixing HP-UX (and eventually
Irix and so on) is a Good Thing?  I'll assume not, at least for 
now.

I recognize that there's been a lot of churn in HP-UX fixes--
tinkering with threading libraries, compilation options, and
so on.  I'm sensitive to such.  My plan is to make conservative
changes, ones unlikely to degrade the situation for other HP-UX
users.  I have plenty of porting background; I'm sure we can
improve on what we have now.

Here's what I need:
1.  Is it best to carry this on here, or should 
    those of us with HP-UX interests go off by
    ourselves for a while, and return once we've
    established consensus?  I've been away, and
    don't feel I know the culture here well.

    Who *are* the folks with an HP-UX interest?
2.  Does anyone happen to have an executable
    built that can "import Tkinter"?  That's my
    most immediate need.  If you can share that
    with me, it'd help my own situation, and I'll
    continue to push for corrections in the
    standard distribution, anyway.

    I can compile _tkinter.c "by hand", but 
    (more details, later--the current point is
    just that stuff doesn't work automatically
    ...
3.  I'm very rusty with setup.py.  While I was
    around for its birth, as I recall, I feel
    clumsy with it now.  Is there a write-up 
    anyone would recommend on good setup.py
    style?