And Now For Something Completely Similar !!!

[Moshe Zadka]

On Thu, 2 Sep 1999, Paul Prescod wrote:

> I think that two major virtues of the "batteries included" model are:
> 
>  * everything tested together -- no version skews
> 
>  * easy to find what you need
> 
> I can't see download size really overwhelming those factors. It's 1999
> after all. Python only takes a few minutes to download even on a slow
> modem!

Let me just note, to strengthen Paul's position, that the Linux kernel had
a similar problem: which is, in some ways, worse: nobody who runs a PC
wants the alpha specific code. However, it was decided that it should
still stay in one big lump to *ease* maintainence. I think the Linux
method is interesting to look and learn from: nobody gives a hoot about
making various parts up to date until the code freeze. Given Python's
release schedule, I do think Guido could put PIL/PST/XML/Numeric in the
tree, and a month before code freeze he would announce: no new features,
debugging only. Note that this kind of method will also help bring IDLE
from the far away recesses of Tools/ into the Garden of Lib/ more easily.

Anyway, if the "I want to download Python in small bytes" attitude will be
common enough, then there will probably be a kind soul somewhere which
will do the splitting himself. Synchronizing is harder.

still-waiting-for-1.6-ly y'rs, Z.