[Python-Dev] Weeding out obsolete modules and Demos

Sjoerd Mullender sjoerd@acm.org
Wed, 11 Sep 2002 10:44:03 +0200


I would not be opposed to deleting the whole Demo/sgi tree.

I don't have an SGI workstation anymore, but I did have an SGI O2
until recently.  I think the audio (and al) stuff and the gl stuff
probably still work (I used mclock until recently).  I think we can
definitely get rid of the video directory (CMIF video format, remember
that?).  I'm not sure whether sv still compiles on modern SGI's.  The
cd module also still works.

Having said this, I'm not sure there is still much value in keeping
the demos.  The modules in the Modules directory is another matter.
Until recently I have used cd and al.  I think cl might still work,
but I'm not sure.  I don't think sv works on anything other than
Indigo's with a Starter Video board.
gl (and I think also fm) still works.  sgi also still works, but I'm
not sure how useful it still is.  It just defines functions nap and
_getpty.
rgbimg is for reading SGI RGB images, but is portable.  Although one
must ask whether it has a place in the standard library, since there
is no similar level of support for more popular image formats.

On Tue, Sep 10 2002 Guido van Rossum wrote:

> > how about going over the various demos, and see which ones have 
> > really lost their usefulness?
> 
> Yeah!
> 
> > I happened to come across Demo/sgi/audio (works only on SGI 
> > 4D/35 machines, which went out of production about 12 years 
> > ago), sv and video (works on Indigo's with the Starter Video 
> > board, last seen about 8 years ago). And there's the svmodule.c 
> > (yup, same board).
> > There are probably Indigo's still alive (4D35's? I doubt it, I 
> > can still remember the noise it made:-), but I wonder whether 
> > anyone in their right mind is still using the SV board.
> > 
> > The forms/fl stuff still technically works on newer SGI's, but 
> > we might also wonder how useful they still are.
> > 
> > And this is for SGI only, there's probably a lot more dead wood 
> > out there,
> 
> I haven't seen or heard an SGI machine for years.  If you think those
> SGI demos have lost their usefulness, please use your CVS powers to
> delete them!
> 
> --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
> 
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-- Sjoerd Mullender <sjoerd@acm.org>