Martin v. Löwis wrote:
Like I said, it's possible to split Python without making things complicated for newbies.
You may have that said, but I don't believe its truth. For example, most distributions won't include Tkinter in the "standard" Python installation: Tkinter depends on _tkinter depends on Tk depends on X11 client libraries. Since distributors want to make X11 client libraries optional, they exclude Tkinter. So people wonder why they can't run Tkinter applications (search comp.lang.python for proof that people wonder about precisely that).
comp.lang.python only represents a *very* tiny fraction of the python universe, though. I'd be much more interested in hearing from people tracking distribution-specific forums.
I don't think the current packaging tools can solve this newbie problem. It might be solvable if installation of X11 libraries would imply installation of Tcl, Tk, and Tkinter: people running X (i.e. most desktop users) would see Tkinter installed, yet it would be possible to omit Tkinter.
I think this is a way too python-centric view of things. maybe we could just ask distributors to prepare a page that describes what portions of the standard distribution they do include, and in what packages they've put the various components, and link to those from the library reference and/or the wiki or FAQ? is there perhaps some machine-readable format that could be used for this? </F>