Wholly unnecessary flame. (was Re: pyXML!)

[asiegel at eico.com]

The thread becomes self-referential in that:

To me (among) the issue(s) raised was the legimate concern of how welcoming  
Python and 
the Python community is  to the unintiated - and more importantly, in what 
direction it is going in that
regard.  I see some shizophrenia on the subject.  The fact that the thread 
quickly became technical - Cygwin,etc.,
 -  rather than focusing on the Python advocacy issue - which I think is the 
more essential,  is somewhat symptomatic.

Which is why I raised Numerical in this context.  A key and valuable module 
that had been available
as a simply Windows install for a long time and then became unavailable as 
such.

The issue for me was not my own personal use of Numerical - have VC (and 
Cygwin) installed and could
manage.

Happens that what I was doing was for a CP4E type audience - not an audience at

all prepared to
deal with compiling Numeric.  If fact part of what I had hoped to accomplish 
was to make the non-initiated
aware of Python/Numeric as a great and easily accessible toolset. Ended up I 
was sort of lying to them.

Not to belabor the point.  And I don't have any particular answer - other than

a plea to developers.  But Cygwin -  as good and as 
free as it is - is certainly not an answer to the issue I see.