lost interest?

[Mats Wichmann]

On Mon, 10 Dec 2001 10:28:13 -0800, Chris Barker
<chrishbarker at attbi.com> wrote:

:Justin Sheehy wrote:
:
:> I'd ask a different question from yours.  Why is it a problem that
:> Python doesn't have an equivalent to CPAN?  "Perl has it" isn't
:> enough.  In order for a number of people to put time and work into
:> this, it has to pose enough of a problem in its absence that those
:> people will have real motivation to make it happen.
:
:A big problem I have seen is people not wanting to use exactly the
:module they really nedd because it is "not part of the standard
:distirubion". If it was a whole lot easier to find, get and install
:third-party packages, perhaps this concern would go away.
:
:I am working on a program with Python right now. When we upgraded to
:2.1, we had to find and install: Python, Numeric, mxDateTime, PIL, and
:wxPython. On both Linux and Windows machines. I would have been a whole
:lot happier it I could have gotten all that from one place!

For those who need it, this pretty much sums up the reason why.  I've
half-heartedly participated in this debate in the past.  One of the
main arguments against always seems to be, why duplicate what the
native OS can do in terms of installation ("why would I want a
Python-based solution?").   And that's fine, if you are using an OS
that's well supported, and preferably are using only one.  We've
already heard "ActiveState's blah blah can do that" (Windows only);
Debian's apt can do that; Mandrake's urpmi can do that; comes with a
Windows installer, etc.  Some people, for example, don't care to
produce a Windows installable, or don't bother with Linux, or...

The problem really comes in when you're trying to specify a Python
Environment that has designs on being as cross-platform as Python is,
and not all of the users care to be Python fans and keep up on
everything that's going on.  Probably there aren't enough people in
that boat to really push for a solution: in other words, the open
source model tends to work when there's enough momentum to provide a
solution.

For those things that are available as a distutils setup, installation
is easy enough - it solves most of the problems. 


Mats Wichmann