[Python-Dev] zlib not compiled by default

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "MZ" == Moshe Zadka <moshez@math.huji.ac.il> writes:

  MZ> On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Guido van Rossum wrote:
  >> Greg subtly points out the difficulty with your proposal: this
  >> requires an external library that may not be available.  In the
  >> past we've had enough complaints from people who failed to
  >> realize that if the build failed because of a missing external
  >> library, they could just disable the module that needs it.  So
  >> I'm not for simply having it enabled in Setup.in by default.

  MZ> Currently there are two external libraries one needs to build a
  MZ> "good" Python interpreter: zlib, and expat. Well, now that
  MZ> Python releases from BeOpen, and not CNRI, perhaps it will be
  MZ> deemed all right to put them in the source distribution, and by
  MZ> default have a Setup.in that builds on them? Perhaps even
  MZ> include a "last known good" Tcl/Tk?

I don't see the need to include the source code from other projects or
libraries in a regular Python release.  Rather, I'd like to see
something like the Windows installer, which packages up third-party
software like Tcl/Tk.

I'm working on a nightly build system for Python that will produce a
tar ball and some Linux RPMs, based in part on the very good work that
Oliver Andrich did.  One of the first things I discovered is that
Expat isn't packaged very well for Linux systems, but that seemed easy
to fix:
    http://www.pythonlabs.com/download/misc/rpm/expat-1.1-1.i386.rpm
    http://www.pythonlabs.com/download/misc/rpm/expat-1.1-1.src.rpm

I'm sure there are other platforms and Linux distributions with
different packaging mechanisms, but Windows and Linuxes-supporting-RPM
seems like a good start.

Jeremy