[Python-Dev] Portability: update and oblique apology

[Cameron Laird]

Back in January, I instigated a rather long thread <URL:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-January/041607.html >
that, inevitably, touched on several topics:  keeping Python going on
minor platforms, how to patch, threading varieties, and so on.  I wrote
'bout how I really, really wanted to "normalize" HP-UX, Irix, and a few
other Unixes.

Then I disappeared.

I know what *I* think of people who promise and don't deliver.  Life
became busy and ... well, here we are now.  I still have an interest
in HP-UX et al., I'll have good access to them at least through the
end of the year, and I understand Python generation better than be-
fore:  these are all good things.  I've got too much going on to lead
any effort, but I'll pitch in when I can make a difference.

I wonder, though, what *does* make a difference.  While I have all
sorts of ideas about how to smooth out rough edges, maybe HP-UX is
already good enough.  Maybe zero more newcomers will ever care about
HP-UX, or old HP-UX releases.

So, this is what I want:  be aware that I'm still motivated to help.
Accept my apology for the long silence.  And please let me know if a
specific need for portability improvements turns up (as in, "IBM 
offered XXX if we just do a better job of supporting AIX", or, "I've
got a customer that likes our product, but we need help assuring
them it'll have a trouble-free future under OpenBSD" or ...).

It'll be an indeterminate interval 'fore I turn up here again.