lost interest?

[Chris Barker]

Skip Montanaro wrote:

> I do a little Perl programming under the guise of using Mason.  I find CPAN
> indispensible for a few reasons:
> 
>     * It appears that more of what the Python distribution calls "core"
>       modules are distributed separate from Perl proper.
> 
>     * I don't know my way around the Perl world very well.
> 
>     * Perl's third-party modules tend to rely heavily on other third-party
>       modules for their proper functioning, so CPAN's ability to register
>       and handle inter-module dependencies is important.

SO:I think this kind of works boith ways:

Perl NEEDS CPAN, because you can't get much done without added modules,
and those modules tend to be interdependent.

Python has gotten as far as it has without a similar archive, because
you can get a whol;e lot done iwth just the standard library, and when
you do need another module, it most likely works by itself.

I think this kind of works both ways: It makes Python easier to use
because of its "batteries included" philosphy. But because so much is in
the standard library, people expect EVERYTHING to be in it, and when a
module is not, they are reluctant to use it.

> If I take a peek into the python2.1/site-packages directory of
> manatee.mojam.com, a machine that I have been working on heavily the past
> week or so, I see these third-party modules:
> 
>     csv
>     mx
>     TextFile
>     MySQLdb
>     timeoutsocket
>     PIL

This is my list:
FFT/         PIL/         kinds/    scipy/
MA/          RNG/         mayavi/   vtkPipeline/
Numeric/     PyCrust/     Scientific/  mx/       wxPython/
PythonCardPrototype/  gui_thread/  roundup/

Granted, some of those are there for the purposes of checking them out,
and I'm not using them for "real work"

Even with Skip's shorter list, It really is a pain in the #$%^ to go
find and install all those packages when you need to duplicate your
system, or upgrade to a new version.

> CPAN is marvelous.  The way the Perl and Python communities operate, it
> fills a niche perfectly in the Perl world, but I think would be a bit of a
> solution looking for a problem in the Python world.

I have been following this discussion, and I think Skip is partially
right: we don't need a clone of CPAN, it would be overkill. And while I
suppose it would be nice to be able to run a script, and have all the
modules it needs downloaded and installed for you, I don't need that.

However, simply having a SINGLE site that I could go to that would have
everything I need would be a big help! more like CTAN (for you TeX/LaTeX
users) that CPAN. And no, the vaults of parnasses are not good
enough...how many of the packages I (or Skip) have in my list are there?

Also, a nice next step would be a comprehensive python distribution.
When youo are hard pressed to buy a machine with less thatn 30GB of disk
space, why not have an easy way to install ALL the most used packages at
once?

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker,
Ph.D.                                                           
ChrisHBarker at attbi.net                ---           ---           ---
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