[Python-Dev] What is --with-next-framework

[Christopher Petrilli]

Guido van Rossum [guido@python.org] wrote:
> > I've been trying to understand how --with-next-framework is supposed
> > to work, and on what systems it is supposed to work - with little
> > success.
> > 
> > From what I understand, it will create a python2.0.dylib, and it will
> > pass that to the linker when linking extension modules. Fine.
> > 
> > What confuses me is the snippet in Modules/getpath.c, where it somehow
> > assumes that the Python library will live in an unversioned lib
> > directory relative to the location of the Python framework. How is
> > that supposed to work? Is anybody here willing to claim that this code
> > is not entirely broken?
> 
> It's most likely broken.  Which suggests that nobody has tried it in a
> *looooooong* time.  I have no idea what the --with-next-framework
> option does, and I have no idea what a NeXT framework is.

A NeXT Framework is a way of building software on NeXTstep/OpenStep
machines, and as far as I can tell, it continues largely unmodified on 
MacOS X (which is more OpenStep than MacOS at many layers).  We just
got our development copies of MacOS X here at Digital Creations, so we 
can take a look, but... as I recall, Jeffrey Shell wasn't able to get
Python running without using these options.

> Why are we still trying to support NeXT?  Isn't it completely
> obsolete?

I know of a few dozen large organizations still on OpenStep, and with
MacOS X I'd say it's far frrom obsolete, if anything it's more likely
than ever to be a"strong platform".

> I propose to rip out --with-next-framework and be done with it.  If
> you feel --with-next-framework is worth having, feel free to propose
> platform-specific fixes to getpathp.c.

I think it should be auto-detected, there's just no reason not to.
The uname of a MacOS X box is quite different than a Mac OX 9 box
(which has no uname :-).  Hopefully we can get a chance to look at
this at work this week.

Chris
-- 
| Christopher Petrilli
| petrilli@amber.org