Guido van Rossum writes:

I got the wish list below. Anyone care to comment on how close we are on fulfilling some or all of this?

Claudio Ramón rmn70@hotmail.com wrote:

• Incorporate WxWindows (wxpython) and/or Gtk+ (now exist a win32 port) GUI

in the standard distribution. For example, Wxpython permit an html browser. It is very importan for document presentations. And Wxwindows and Gtk+ are faster than tk.

And GTK+ looks better, too. ;-) None the less, I don't think GTK+ is as solid or mature as Tk. There are still a lot of oddities, and several warnings/errors get messages printed on stderr/stdout (don't know which) rather than raising exceptions. (This is a failing of GTK+, not PyGTK.) There isn't an equivalent of the Tk text widget, which is a real shame. There are people working on something better, but it's not a trivial project and I don't have any idea how its going.

• Incorporate a database system in the standard library distribution. To be

possible with relational and documental capabilites and with import facility of DBASE, Paradox, MSAccess files.

Doesn't sound like part of a core library really, though I could see combining the Win32 extensions with the core package to produce a single installable. That should at least provide access to MSAccess, and possible the others, via ODBC.

• Incorporate a XML/HTML/Math-ML editor/browser with graphics capability (to

be possible with XML how internal file format). And to be possible with Microsoft Word import export facility. For example, AbiWord project can be an alternative but if lacks programming language. If we can make python the programming language for AbiWord project...

I think this would be great to have. But I wouldn't put the editor/browser in the core. I would stick something like the XML-SIG's package in, though, once that's better polished.

-Fred

-- Fred L. Drake, Jr. fdrake@acm.org Corporation for National Research Initiatives

Guido van Rossum wrote:

• GNU CC for Win32 compatibility (compilation of python interpreter and

"Freeze" utility). I think MingWin32 (Mummint Khan) is a good alternative eviting the cygwin dll user.

I think this would be a good alternative for all those not having MS VC for one reason or another. Since Mingw32 is free this might be an appropriate solution for e.g. schools which don't want to spend lots of money for VC licenses.

• Add low level programming capabilities for system access and speed of code

fragments eviting the C-C++ or Java code use. Python, I think, must be a complete programming language in the "programming for every body" philosofy.

Don't know what he meant here...

• Incorporate WxWindows (wxpython) and/or Gtk+ (now exist a win32 port) GUI

in the standard distribution. For example, Wxpython permit an html browser. It is very importan for document presentations. And Wxwindows and Gtk+ are faster than tk.

GUIs tend to be fast moving targets, better leave them out of the main distribution.

• Incorporate a database system in the standard library distribution. To be

possible with relational and documental capabilites and with import facility of DBASE, Paradox, MSAccess files.

Database interfaces are usually way to complicated and largish for the standard dist. IMHO, they should always be packaged separately. Note that simple interfaces such as a standard CSV file import/export module would be neat extensions to the dist.

• Incorporate a XML/HTML/Math-ML editor/browser with graphics capability (to

be possible with XML how internal file format). And to be possible with Microsoft Word import export facility. For example, AbiWord project can be an alternative but if lacks programming language. If we can make python the programming language for AbiWord project...

I'm getting the feeling that Ramon is looking for a complete visual programming environment here. XML support in the standard dist (faster than xmllib.py) would be nice. Before that we'd need solid builtin Unicode support though...