[Python-Dev] Re: Import redesign [Warning: INCLUDES RANT]

[Fredrik Lundh]

James C. Ahlstrom <jim@interet.com> wrote:
> IMHO putting shared libs in an archive is a bad idea because the OS
> can not use them there.  They must be extracted as you say.  But then
> storage is wasted by using space in the archive and the external file.
> Deleting them after use wastes time.  Better to leave them out of the
> archive and provide for them in the installer.  IMHO the
> archive is a basic simple feature, and people make installers on top
> of that.  Archives shouldn't try to do it all.

have you tried it?  if not, why do you think you should
be allowed to forbid others from doing it?

in "the inmates are running the asylum", alan cooper
points out that the *major* reason people all over the
world love web applications are that there are no
bloody installers.  and here you are advocating that
we all should be forced to use installers, when python
makes it trivial to write self-installing apps. double-argh!

(on the other hand, why do I complain? all pythonworks
customers is going to be able to do all this anyway...).

<rant size="major">

frankly, this "design by committee" (or is it "design by
people who've never even been close to implementing
something because they thought it was too hard, and
thus think they're qualified to argue against those of
us who didn't even realize that it was a hard problem"?)
trend I've been seeing in all kinds of python forums
makes me sooooo sad.  the more of this I see (dist-
utils-sig, doc-sig, here, c.l.python), the sadder I get,
and the more I sympathise with John Skaller who's
defining his own python-like universe...

if someone needs me, I'll be down in the pub having
a beer with the mad scientist, the shiny eff-bot, and
mr. nitpicker.  if we're not there, you'll find us in the
lab, working on new string matching facilities for 1.6,
SOAP [1], tkinter replacements for the masses, and
whatever else we can come up with...  see you!

</rant>

1) http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=Coenz0bWbu0znmdKXqq