[Python-Dev] Can't compile _tkinter.c with Redhat 9 (post-SF#719880)

[Martin v. Löwis]

Mihai Ibanescu <misa@redhat.com> writes:

> Anyway, UCS4 is something I don't think we can change now - and after 
> reading Martin's post, it makes me feel it's the correct way to go. How 
> can we fix the tcl/python interaction? If you have suggestions, please let 
> me know (off-list would be fine too). 

For 2.3, I have fixed it in the way that you can build _tkinter in
both UCS-2 and UCS-4 against a UCS-2 Tcl, and you can build a UCS-4
Python against a UCS-4 Tcl.

What is missing is building a standard (i.e. UCS-2) Python against the
Redhat (i.e. UCS-4) Tcl. There is now a note in README telling people
to configure Python for UCS-4 on Redhat. It appears that all Redhat 9
users running into that so far find that acceptable.

Still, it would slightly simplify the build procedure to support UCS-2
Python against UCS-4 Tcl. To do that, that case needs to be detected
at compile time, and appropriate character-by-character conversions
must be made. This is not on my TODO list, but I would accept patches
that do that.

I have advised the Debian Python maintainer (Matthias Klose), that
staying with UCS-2 for Python 2.2 is a good idea, as there are still
problems left in 2.2. For 2.3, I have suggested that they build with
UCS-4, especially as one Debian package requires that. So for
compatibility across Linux distributions, I hope that distributors
will configure Python 2.3 with UCS-4 on Linux.

Regards,
Martin

P.S. What is IMO more urgently missing is "proper" support for that
feature in Tcl, if it is meant to be a feature, in terms of
documentation, configuration options, etc. Or, if Tcl maintainers
decide this is *not* a desirable feature, it would help if they say so
(but I think Jeff's comments indicate that this is unlikely).