[Python-3000] Limitations of "batteries included"

[Jim Jewett]

On 8/25/07, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

> I believe the only reasonable solution is to promote the use of
> package managers, and to let go of the "batteries included" philosophy
> where it comes to major external functionality. When it links to
> something that requires me to do install a pre-built external
> non-Python bundle anyway (e.g. Berkeley Db, Sqlite, and others), the
> included battery is useless until it is "charged" by installing that
> dependency; the Python wrapper might as well be managed by the same
> package manager.

Windows is in a slightly different category; many people can't easily
install the external bundle.  If it is included in the python binary
(sqlite3, tcl), then everything is fine.  But excluding them by
default on non-windows machines seems to be opening the door to
bitrot.  (Remember that one of the pushes toward the buildbots was a
realization of how long the windows build had stayed broken without
anyone noticing.)

-jJ