Am 05.12.2010 19:16, schrieb M.-A. Lemburg:
Georg Brandl wrote:
Hi,
I wonder if it's still necessary to provide .tar.bz2 and .tgz source tarballs. If anything, it would be nice to provide .tar.xz in addition to .tar.bz2, which has a nicer compression ratio:
.tgz - 13 MB .tar.bz2 - 11 MB .tar.xz - 8.6 MB
I've never heard of the .xz format before, but if it provides better compression, then why not add it to the available options.
Yes, I think it's best to just add it for now. I may do that for future 3.2 releases.
I'd also suggest a .zip file source format as alternative to the above. This is more common on Windows platforms.
BTW: The download page says: """ * Python 3.1.3 compressed source tarball (for Linux, Unix or OS X) * Python 3.1.3 bzipped source tarball (for Linux, Unix or OS X, more compressed) """ This sounds like the source tarball is not the right source distribution for Windows platforms.
Basically, it is good for all platforms, but most line-endings will be Unix line-endings in these files. Providing a .zip file with Windows line endings needs one more export/archive step from the source repo.
And then there's a general issue with the user experience for first-time users of Python: there's a quick install guide missing on the download page.
Not sure that is needed: those who download the installers will know what to do with them, and those who download the source should also know (otherwise README has a quick build and install section.)
Georg