Time for a Python "distribution" ? was:Not enough Python library development

[Sheila King]

On Thu, 05 Jul 2001 11:47:22 -0700, Chris Barker <chrishbarker at home.net>
wrote in comp.lang.python in article <3B44B63A.BB507CBF at home.net>:

[snipped]
: Guido
:had made it pretty clear that merging all these modules (and more) into
:the standard library is impractical for a number of reasons.
:
:Unfortunately, not having all the major modules available for a single
:source really is a big limitation. Not only do people like me have to
:spend a whole lot more time installing stuff, developers are limited as
:to what they can expect a Python installation to include. This means
:that you either don't use what would be a useful module, or you are
:faced with distributing a bunch of extra stuff with your module or
:program.

This is a very good point. Right now, I'm just starting to teach myself
GUI programming. I've been messing around a bit with Tkinter. There is
much more documentation and literature available for Tkinter than for
other GUI toolkits for Python. I thought a bit about possibly trying
wxPython, but the fact that Tkinter is included in the usual Python
distro and wxPython is not, and that is a big obstacle for distribution
of one's software.

[snipped]
:My proposal is to create a Python "Distribution" that includes a large
:collection of what are becoming standard modules, but are maintained by
:folks other than the core Python team. I'm modeling this idea on the
:Linux Distributions:
[snipped]
:The short version is that I'd like people to be able to say that their
:program or module runs on "Comprehensive Python 2.1", which can be
:downloaded from "http://ComprehensivePython.org". At that web site would
:be a easy way to download a whole package for a couple of flavors of
:Linux, Windows, Macintosh, other *nixs, etc.
:
:
:If there is a least a small group of people interested, send me a note,
:and lets get started on the organization details.

This is an excellent idea. I hope you get sufficient interest to
implement it!

--
Sheila King
http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/
http://www.k12groups.org/