[Python-Dev] [Pydotorg] Should we help pythonmac.org?

[Jack Jansen]

On  19-Aug-2008, at 19:28 , Bill Janssen wrote:

>>> My understanding is that if there is a system Python, you shouldn't
>>> change it.  Ever.
>>
>> Huge, big, honkin' +1 from me on that.  Besides, for a system Python,
>> you want your distribution to manage packages, not setuptools,
>> otherwise you confuse -- and probably break -- your system.
>
> I find this discussion fascinating.  I install new packages into my
> system Python all the time, with "/usr/bin/python setup.py install",
> and that includes setuptools.  I've got PIL, ReportLab, Twisted, Xlib,
> appscript, docutils, email-4.0.1, fuse, PyLucene, medusa, mutagen,
> roman, setuptools, and SSL installed in the Leopard machine I'm
> writing from.  They don't wind up in
> /System/Library/.../site-packages/, they wind up in
> /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/, which is sort of the right place,
> from an Apple point of view.  I do this on lots of Macs -- I've got a
> regular posse of them at work.  And I've never had any problems with
> it.

Same here: if have yet to see adverse consequences of installing third  
party packages into system Python. And now that Apple is distributing  
fairly current versions of things like PyObjC there's even little  
reason to build my own copy of Python. I have one on disk, but I find  
that I use the system Python for almost everything.

Fink (and to a lesser extent MacPorts) I don't touch with a 10 feet  
pole: too often I've created software for distribution only to find  
that it somehow, behind my back, was linked against a dynamic library  
that I had installed locally through it.
--
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


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