[Python-Dev] Configure option to change Python's name?

[Jack Jansen]

This idea is only half-baked, so please fire away, or tell me to go 
ahead, or go hide under a stone.

I would like a configure option that changes the name of "python" 
everywhere: in the executable, in the dynamic library name, the MacOSX 
framework name, etc. This would allow you to have two Pythons on a 
system that are completely 100% independent of each other.

The idea was triggered by Michael Hudson, who wanted to install a 
debugging-enabled framework build of Python on MacOSX, which shouldn't 
interfere with the normal Python (either Apple-installed or 
user-installed). It turns out this is doable through meticulous hacking 
of the Makefile after configure (and, for now, ignoring the few 
hardcoded "Python.framework" references in Lib, but those need fixing 
anyway). For other unix systems a similar approach would work to 
isolate a debug-python from the normal production python.

But then I thought of another use: this would allow you to have a 
MacPython 2.3.3 distribution as well as the Apple-installed 2.3 
distribution without any interference possible. And there are probably 
similar uses on other platforms.
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman