Which C compiler?

[norseman]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:
> On Mon, 18 May 2009 15:47:41 -0700, norseman <norseman at hughes.net> wrote:
> 
>> I suspect that if all python users were in the same room and the 
>> question "Are you NOT happy with python's upgrade requirements?" was 
>> asked you would find most hands in the air.  I have said it before - the 
>> current attitude of 'new means we start over' was what nearly destroyed 
>> Apple. Doesn't take joe public long to get tired of constantly 
>> re-buying, re-writing themselves, re-hiring the same people to re-write 
>> the same thing, etc...
> 
> I dislike the "bleeding edge" aspect of Python culture too, but (as
> long as everyone ignores Python 3.0) it's not really something which
> hurts me in my daily life. *Not* using Python would hurt, though.
> 

agreed! emphatically so

> I'm on Linux though, and use no third-party modules which haven't
> already been filtered by Debian's maintainers. I don't know if that's
> the reason, but my applications rarely or never break.  So I'm not
> quite sure what happened in your case ...
> 

Linux, me too.  MY apps, same.   Coupling to vendor apps - busted.

> /Jorgen
> 

I cannot speak for the OP, but I have run into version problems as a 
result of dealing with purchased applications that use python as the (or 
one of the allowed) scripting languages for user written tweaks. As an 
example I'll use fictitious Company-One that released 9.1 which had no 
python. Then they released 9.2 which came with python 2.4 and then they 
released 9.3 which came with python 2.5(.1) plus the other languages 
like VBA that have been there all along. A program NOT using Company-One 
hooks but rather just the python itself (as in a small scientific 
calculator for use 'on the side') which was written in 2.4 will not run 
on 2.5. Who knows why. (The first error noted had to do with version 
miss-match.) It's these types of inconsistencies that are annoying. 
Since the place I work converted to Company-One's 9.3 and someone fixed 
the calculator to run on 2.5, I left the research into what might be the 
actual problem in a file somewhere. I believe it was a circular file. :)
I have my own calculator so I don't use the other one anyway.  :)

That scenario is probably the norm for most companies with more than one 
individual in them who use purchased applications and write in-house 
'scripts'.  The lack of upward compatibility is always annoying.

In all fairness to Python, it is not nearly as bad as VBA when it comes 
to breaking.  VBA quits when the OS version changes, when the VBA 
version changes, when the VB6 version changes.  It also seems to break 
each time sneeze. :)  Whereas when a given version of Python is loaded 
on both Linux and Windows I can samba a drive and use the same single 
one and only one file on both OSs at the same time if I wish, with the 
same certainty.  All except the fonts.  Three different Window machines 
all running the same OS release/patches and I get three different 
results for the same mono spaced font.  Go figure.



Steve