At 7:37 AM -0700 9/4/08, C. Titus Brown wrote:
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 10:29:10AM -0400, Tony Nelson wrote: ... -> Shipping an application to end users is a different problem. Such packages -> should include a private copy of Python as well as of any dependent -> libraries, as tested.
Why? On Mac OS X, for example, Python comes pre-installed -- not sure if it comes with Tk yet, but the next version probably will. On Windows there's a handy few-click installer that installs Tk. Is there some reason why I shouldn't be relying on those distributions??
Yes. An application is tested with one version of Python and one version of its libraries. When MOSX updates Python or some other library, you are relying on their testing of your application. Unless you are Adobe or similarly large they didn't do that testing. Perhaps you have noticed the threads about installing a new Python release over the Python that came with an OS, and how bad an idea that is? This is the same issue, from the other side.
Requiring users to install anything at all imposes a barrier to use. That barrier rises steeply in height the more packages (with versioning issues, etc.) are needed. This also increases the tech support burden dramatically. ...
Precisely why one needs to ship a single installer that installs the complete application, including Python and any other libraries it needs. -- ____________________________________________________________________ TonyN.:' <mailto:tonynelson@georgeanelson.com> ' <http://www.georgeanelson.com/>