[Pythonmac-SIG] bundle-builder suggestion

[Chris Barker]

Bob Ippolito wrote:

> They do necessarily have Python installed, they do not necessary have a 
> symlink to it in /usr/bin.

My misunderstanding. This is nice to know.

> It does not make sense to bloat executables because it MAY OR MAY NOT 
> support an operating system that will not be released for quite a few 
> months.

Isn't it the developers decision whether it makes sense to bloat 
executables or not? Personally, I'm fine with expecting that I might 
need to re-build th bundle in the future, but I'm amazed at the nubmer 
of little apps we have around here that were written and compiled on 
Mac-OS System 7, or whatever, and people expect them to work now. Some 
of them are even pre-PPC.

I'd like to think that Python will be treated by Apple as any other 
system library, and they maintain backwork compatibility in future 
versions of the OS, but given what they have done with it so far, I 
doubt it. At least until Apple uses it far more heavily themselves.

   --standalone leads people to believe that it's compatible with
> PREVIOUS versions of OS X, and it most certainly IS NOT when used in 
> conjunction with a Python (and Python extensions) built on OS X 10.3 
> using standard means, especially the one that comes with the OS.

I don't expect that. I'd never expect a executable built on a given 
system to work on older systems without doing something special when 
building it. It's that same with any old C program compiled on 10.3, 
unless you explicitly build with the compatible libraries, it's not 
going to work on older systems.

>> I see this as analogous to dynamic vs static linking. 

> Yes, exactly, and if you want it to be (roughly) equivalent to static 
> linking than you better use a Python that you have control over!

I agree, but my understanding is that you create quite a mess if you try 
to run another Python 2.3.* on an OS-X 10.3 system. We're all hoping for 
that to get better in the future (indeed, I understand you're working 
hard to make that happen). For now though, I don't see the problem with 
including Apples 2.3.0 python in a bundle...do you think it is likely 
not to work on future versions of OS-X?

-Chris

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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