New Python website

[Maurice LING]

lpe wrote:
> Hi maurice
> thanks for your interest, that surely looks interesting (and promising)
> I had no experience with any of the packages you mentioned, but it may
> well be usefull.
> Please email me with more details of what you had in mind.
> 

Hi,

I've just read PEP 262 last night and finds that it does more or less 
describes what I have in mind. However, I am not sure if there is every 
need for such a descriptive database file or something slimmer, like 
Fink's .info files will suffice.

An example of Fink's .info file is:
====================================================
Package: g77
Version: 3.4.1
Revision: 1
BuildDependsOnly: true
Source: mirror:gnu:gcc/gcc-%v/gcc-%v.tar.bz2
Source-MD5: 31b459062499f9f68d451db9cbf3205c
NoSourceDirectory: True
ConfigureParams: --enable-languages=f77 --infodir='${prefix}/share/info' 
--libexecdir='${prefix}/lib' --disable-shared
#BuildDepends: dejagnu
PatchScript: <<
  #!/bin/sh
  cd gcc-%v/gcc
  mv Makefile.in Makefile.in.orig
  sed 's|$(ALL_CPPFLAGS) $(INCLUDES)|$(INCLUDES) $(ALL_CPPFLAGS)|g' < 
Makefile.in.orig > Makefile.in
<<
CompileScript: <<
  #!/bin/sh
  mkdir darwin
  cd darwin
  ../gcc-%v/configure %c
  make CFLAGS='-O' LIBCFLAGS='-g -O2' LIBCXXFLAGS='-g -O2 
-fno-implicit-templates' profiledbootstrap
#cd gcc; make check-g77
<<
InstallScript: <<
  #!/bin/sh
  cd darwin
  make install prefix=%i
  cd %i/bin
  /bin/rm -f gcc gccbug cpp gcov powerpc-apple*
  ln -s %p/bin/g77 f77
  darwinvers=`/usr/bin/uname -v | cut -f1 -d":" | awk '{print $4}'`
  gccvers=`%i/bin/g77 -dumpversion | head -1 | cut -f4 -d" "`
  ln -s 
%p/lib/gcc/powerpc-apple-darwin${darwinvers}/${gccvers}/include/g2c.h 
%i/include/g2c.h
  /bin/rm -rf %i/share/locale %i/man
  /bin/rm -f %i/lib/charset.alias
  /bin/rm -f %i/share/info/gcc* %i/share/info/cpp*
  /bin/mv -f %i/lib/libiberty.a %i/lib/libiberty-g77.a
<<
License: GPL
DocFiles: gcc-%v/gcc/f/ChangeLog gcc-%v/COPYING gcc-%v/COPYING.LIB
Description: GNU Fortran compiler
DescDetail: <<
  g77 consists of several components:

  1) The g77 command itself.
  2) The libg2c run-time library.  This library contains the
     machine code needed to support capabilities of the Fortran
     language that are not directly provided by the machine code
     generated by the g77 compilation phase.
  3) The compiler itself, internally named f771.
     f771 does not generate machine code directly --
     it generates assembly code, leaving the conversion to
     actual machine code to an assembler, usually named as.

  g77 supports some fortran90 features, like automatic arrays,
  free source form, and DO WHILE.
<<
DescPort: <<
  Installs g77 from the FSF gcc distribution.

  This version does not install in /usr. It contains it's own cc1 and
  libgcc.a installed in %p.

  libiberty.a moved to libiberty-g77.a to avoid conflict with ddd.
<<
DescUsage: <<
  If you get unresolved symbol '_saveFP', add -lcc_dynamic when linking.

  Does not support -framework argument, to link frameworks use -Wl flag
  (for example, to link vecLib use "-Wl,-framework -Wl,vecLib").

  No man page, use "info g77".
<<
Homepage: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/g77/
Maintainer: Jeffrey Whitaker <jswhit at fastmail.fm>
================================================================================

Implementing the API specified in PEP 262 is desirable.

What I am thinking is this,

1. when user specify a package to install, the package's .info file will 
be looked up in 'pkginfo' directory (in PEP 262, it is the INSTALLDB 
directory that holds all these .info files).

2. to the system, only 3 things are crucial: where to get the package? 
what packages the package needs? how to install? These 3 things are the 
real critical parts of .info file, the rest are information and metadata.

3. from the dependencies, the system now creates a tree of dependencies. 
Can all dependencies be satisfied, i.e. are there any required packages 
that are not in standard library and there is no .info file for?

4. dependencies are satisfied (install the packages) from terminal leaf 
nodes on the dependency tree to the root node (which is the one the user 
wants to install)

5. appropriate entries are made in appropriate files (i.e. 
pkg-install.log) to signify which packages are installed.

6. satisfy the files needed for API requirements of PEP 262.

Please tell me what you think...


Cheers
Maurice