[Python-Dev] help for a noob - version for a sharp ARM

[Josiah Carlson]

a Fred <fghaibach at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I'm looking for advice on stripping down Python for an SBC to run Numpy 
> and Scipy.  I have the following notes on the system
> 
> We have code that requires recent versions of Numpy and Scipy.
> The processor is a 32 bit Sharp ARM Sharp LH7A404 32 bit ARM922TDMI with 
>      32MB of SDRAM.
> 512 MB flash disk - but 400 MB is reserved for data
> The OS is Linux 
> only a tty interface is used.  
> 
> Does anyone have a feel as to whether Python for Arm is the correct 
>      starting point?

Sounds like plenty of muscle to handle Python certain domain number
crunching problems.

> What modules can I safely add/strip out?

Most every C module you don't need.  You can also compile without
unicode.  I believe you can more or less toss everything except for the
base python binary and the pythonxy.so (or pythonxy.dll) for your
platform, but I am most likely wrong.  My (awful) suggestion: start with
a Python installation in some user path, like ~/python .  Toss
everything and start adding things that it complains about until it
starts working again.

> Will Python take more than 5-6 seconds to load?

I have previously gotten dos versions of Python (I think 1.5 or 1.4) to
load on a 486 sx 33 with 8 megs of ram in a couple seconds.  You
shouldn't have issues with startup on an ARM.

> Will old Python releases, like 1.5.x, work with newer Numpy and Scipy?

I don't know.  But you should be able to remove unused portions of
Python for your platform.  There are somewhat recent posts in this
mailing lists about embedded systems and Python.  Others may be able to
help you more.

 - Josiah