[Python.NET] questions from a new PythonNet user

[Brian Lloyd]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 8:38 PM, Hamilton Link <helink at sandia.gov> wrote:

> ...



>
> I suppose the first question is,
> Why are there no apparent build instructions in the distribution?
>

Hi there - unfortunately I think the problem is that it would take a large
effort
to come up with a build process that works reliably for all possible
platforms
(mono, win32), python versions, unicode requirements, build toolchains, etc.

Consequently, the docs are kind of all over the place.

Thus far, while python.net has been useful for some people, I don't think
the
user community is large enough yet for any group of people to get together
to
put together anything really comprehensive in terms of distribution tools or

docs.


> It seems that there are more than half a dozen build configurations (python
> 2.3, 4, 5, and 6, plus UCS2/4 distinctions for 5 and 6, plus clr.so/.dll
> being built for a 32- or 64-bit system) and a couple of possible build
> environments (VS or Mono+make), so breaking this all down for first timers
> would really, really be appreciated.  If I've just missed them, I apologize,
> but the only thing I've been able to find so far is
>
> http://feihonghsu.blogspot.com/2008/02/installing-pythonnet-20-alpha-2-on.html
> and
> http://feihonghsu.blogspot.com/2008/02/pythonnet-20-for-net-sp1_15.html
> which are _great_ but they are at an unaffiliated web site, are only Visual
> Studio instructions, and don't cover targeting 32/64 bit.  I should also
> mention that if there really aren't official build instructions I will
> happily write some up (cribbing somewhat from Mr. Feihong Hsu if he agrees)
> as soon as I have a clear understanding of the process and can do it
> successfully, and I'll stick that into svn if I can or post it to the
> mailing list for a dev to add if I can't.


If you're willing to write some, I'm willing to give you whatever access you
need to
get them in svn ;) If anyone thinks a lighter weight tool would help, we
could set up
a mediawiki instance or something as well...


> How actively maintained is PythonNet at the moment?
>
> It looks like since the project was made to work patches have become
> infrequent, which I will take to mean that things work reasonably well.  But
> this putative .net SP1 patch (
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pythondotnet/2008-January/000771.html )
> was not apparently folded into SVN, was there a reason for this?
>

I can only speak for myself as the original author -- for my part, the
project that allowed
me to do the original work on this is ancient history. While I have an
ongoing geeky
interest and have on occasion been able to do small spurts of work, its
unlikely I will
be able to work on this substantively in the near future.

To their credit, many of the folks
who have used the system have stepped up to contribute changes when they
have
run up against problems. I have, and will continue to, give those folks
access to
sourceforge etc. to improve the platform as they are able. But my impression
is
that where we are now is a situation where people can "scratch their own
itch", but
there is no organized effort to track the .NET or mono platform changes
going
forward. My opinion is that it will take an invested champion to make that
happen.

FWIW, Resolver and others seem to be using some of the code and concepts
from
python.net to further use of native extensions with IronPython -- that may
also be a
good avenue to explore if you're looking for long-term supportability (and
I'm sure
resolver would welcome the help!)

-Brian
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