[Python-Dev] HP-UX clean-up

[Andrew MacKeith]

 >    Who *are* the folks with an HP-UX interest?

At ABAQUS Inc. we use Python on a variety of platforms,
including HP-UX, and we are in the process of upgrading
to Python-2.3.3.

We build in our own specialized build environment,
using the pyconfig.h files created by configure on each
platform.

In the past we have had to make several changes for HP-UX.

An important feature of the HP-UX build is that it should
be binary compatible for all HP-UX processors (there are at
least 10, maybe more, varieties).  We have noticed
that Python optimizes for the native processor on which it is
built, and this can give problems on a different processor.
We therefore have to have flags that will force HP to compile
for some common generic processor.
This affects everyone who has to distribute Python as pre-built
binaries for customers, like we do (rather than building it on
customers' machines).

We are currently targeting:
     HP-UX 11.00 on PA-RISC 32-bit       all processors
     HP-UX 11.00 on PA-RISC 64-bit       all processors
     HP-UX 11.22 on Intel/Itanium 64-bit (both big- and little-endian 
setups)
     HP-UX 11.11 all processors
     HP-UX 11.i  all processors

Andrew MacKeith

Cameron Laird wrote:
> Python generation for HP-UX is broken.  I want to fix it.
> 
> Do I need to make the case for the first proposition?  I think
> the threading problems are widely recognized ...  This isn't
> an accusation of moral turpitude, incidentally; it just hasn't
> worked out to solve HP-UX difficulties, for plenty of legiti-
> mate reasons.  I understand that.
> 
> I happened to try a vanilla generation of 2.3.3 under HP-UX 
> 10.20 yesterday, and encountered multiple non-trivial faults
> (curses, threading, ...).  Experience tells me I'd find roughly
> the same level of problems with other releases of Python and
> HP-UX.
> 
> Do I need to make the case that fixing HP-UX (and eventually
> Irix and so on) is a Good Thing?  I'll assume not, at least for 
> now.
> 
> I recognize that there's been a lot of churn in HP-UX fixes--
> tinkering with threading libraries, compilation options, and
> so on.  I'm sensitive to such.  My plan is to make conservative
> changes, ones unlikely to degrade the situation for other HP-UX
> users.  I have plenty of porting background; I'm sure we can
> improve on what we have now.
> 
> Here's what I need:
> 1.  Is it best to carry this on here, or should 
>     those of us with HP-UX interests go off by
>     ourselves for a while, and return once we've
>     established consensus?  I've been away, and
>     don't feel I know the culture here well.
> 
>     Who *are* the folks with an HP-UX interest?
> 2.  Does anyone happen to have an executable
>     built that can "import Tkinter"?  That's my
>     most immediate need.  If you can share that
>     with me, it'd help my own situation, and I'll
>     continue to push for corrections in the
>     standard distribution, anyway.
We do not use Tkinter.

> 
>     I can compile _tkinter.c "by hand", but 
>     (more details, later--the current point is
>     just that stuff doesn't work automatically
>     ...
> 3.  I'm very rusty with setup.py.  While I was
>     around for its birth, as I recall, I feel
>     clumsy with it now.  Is there a write-up 
>     anyone would recommend on good setup.py
>     style?  
> 
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