compiling python with unix

[Cameron Laird]

In article <40c32fbd$0$2287$afc38c87 at news.easynet.fr>,
RosalieM <NOSPAM at easyconnect.fr> wrote:
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>I used a lfs 4.0 to build my unix. But is is very fat. I can compile python
>from there and play with "Hello World", but i dont uderstand how to choose
>what i need and what i dont need to compile it and choose features that
>python would be able to do.
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>For example, can i build python on a minix system?
>Why socket module needs threads to compile ?
>
>I search answers to this kind of questions.
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Now I understand MUCH better.

Yes and no.

No, standard Python does not generate cleanly under Minix.
The sockets module wants to offer concurrency--do I need 
to explain why it's so natural to support services that
can multitask?--and a design decision early in Python's
history and architecture was to model concurrency on 
threading.  It certainly is possible to construct good
socket interfaces without threads; Tcl, for example, does
so.  Python simply made a different choice, though, and
one which I think you're observing complicates its porta-
bility to some operating systems.

On yet another hand, some people work with "small Pythons",
ones which include only a fraction of the standard Python's
capabilities.  I'm sure one of those will do fine under 
Minix.  One quick way to make progress in that direction is
to pick up an early distribution--Python 1.2?  2.0?--and see
how you like that.

What's the *real* goal, though?  Do you want any small-but-
capable language under any small-but-capable embedded
operating system?  If that's the only constraint, I might
be inclined to look to a language more easily portable and
slender than Python, maybe Lua, Tcl, Forth, or one of the
small Lisps.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at phaseit.net>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net