[Python-Dev] Status of Python in the Red Hat 7.1 beta

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

On 07-Feb-2001 Moshe Zadka wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Feb 2001 02:39:11 -0500, Guido van Rossum <guido@digicool.com>
> wrote:
>> The binaries should be called python1.5 and python2.0, and python
>> should be a symlink to whatever is the default one.
> 
> No they shouldn't. Joey Hess wrote to debian-python about the problems
> such a scheme caused when Perl5.005 and Perl 5.6 tried to coexist.

Guido, the problem lies in we have no default.  The user may install only 2.x
or 1.5.  Scripts that handle the symlink can fail and then the user is left
without a python.  In the case where only one is installed, this is easy. 
however in a packaged system where any number of pythons could exist, problems
arise.

Now, the problem with perl was a bad one because the thing in charge of the
symlink was itself a perl script.