Distribution formats
We're currently distributing 21 different files for the documentation for a single Python release. This includes 3 compression formats for the HTML, LaTeX, PDF (2 paper sizes), and PostScript (2 paper sizes) formats, 2 compression formats for the GNU info, and 1 for the iSilo format. I'd like to cut back a little. ;-) Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?) I'd appreciate feedback on this. Thanks! -Fred -- Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at acm.org> PythonLabs at Zope Corporation
"Fred L. Drake, Jr." <fdrake@acm.org> writes:
We're currently distributing 21 different files for the documentation for a single Python release. This includes 3 compression formats for the HTML, LaTeX, PDF (2 paper sizes), and PostScript (2 paper sizes) formats, 2 compression formats for the GNU info, and 1 for the iSilo format.
I'd like to cut back a little. ;-)
Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?)
I'd appreciate feedback on this. Thanks!
One annoying factor is that WinZip doesn't support the bzip2 format. I don't know how many (if any) users rely on .tar.gz format archives on Windows (I don't!), but as WinZip is fairly commonly used, there may be an issue there... I think that, as long as you supply *one* of .tar.gz or .zip formats, WinZip users will be OK. Hope this helps, Paul. -- This signature intentionally left blank
Paul Moore writes:
I think that, as long as you supply *one* of .tar.gz or .zip formats, WinZip users will be OK.
Ok, here's what I'll plan to do: I'll send a note to python-dev to see if anyone there has strong objections to dropping the .tar.gz format. If that flies, we can ask the larger community to chime in on python-list (comp.lang.python). I won't have time to read python-list to guage the reaction myself; I'll ask that comments be directed here instead. -Fred -- Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at acm.org> PythonLabs at Zope Corporation
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?)
WinZip (one of the standard Windows utilities) supports gzip, but I can't find any sign that they support bzip2. -- Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/ "It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." --Bill Harlan
Aahz wrote on 2003-09-29:
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?)
WinZip (one of the standard Windows utilities) supports gzip, but I can't find any sign that they support bzip2.
For windows, the Free `7-Zip`__ supports them all. __ www.7-zip.org -- Beni Cherniavsky <cben@users.sf.net> Python - the best programming diet.
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Beni Cherniavsky wrote:
Aahz wrote on 2003-09-29:
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?)
WinZip (one of the standard Windows utilities) supports gzip, but I can't find any sign that they support bzip2.
For windows, the Free `7-Zip`__ supports them all.
__ www.7-zip.org
While that's a Good Thing, I'm not sure it addresses the issue. Should we be in a position where in order to access material on python.org, people have to download additional software? I think it's reasonable to assume that people have either ZIP or bzip2, but I think that we'll get lots of whining if we only make bzip2 available. (I'm already not looking forward to the complaints to webmaster if we remove gzip, but that's at least manageable.) -- Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/ "It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." --Bill Harlan
Aahz wrote on 2003-09-29:
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Beni Cherniavsky wrote:
Aahz wrote on 2003-09-29:
On Mon, Sep 29, 2003, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
Is there anyone currently relying on the gzipped archives who can't use the bzip2 archives? (How about the ZIP users? Can they rely on gzip or bzip2 archives?)
WinZip (one of the standard Windows utilities) supports gzip, but I can't find any sign that they support bzip2.
For windows, the Free `7-Zip`__ supports them all.
__ www.7-zip.org
While that's a Good Thing, I'm not sure it addresses the issue. Should we be in a position where in order to access material on python.org, people have to download additional software? I think it's reasonable to assume that people have either ZIP or bzip2, but I think that we'll get lots of whining if we only make bzip2 available. (I'm already not looking forward to the complaints to webmaster if we remove gzip, but that's at least manageable.)
I agree. I just pointed it out so it can be mentioned on the site (better than nothing IMHO). IIRC (I deleted the original message) one of the things compressed in too many formats were the info files - at least for them, you can safely ignore windows users that don't know to handle bzip2 (because they surely won't know what to do with info files ;). -- Beni Cherniavsky <cben@users.sf.net> Python - the best programming diet.
participants (4)
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Aahz -
Beni Cherniavsky -
Fred L. Drake, Jr. -
Paul Moore