Python 2 to 3 conversion - embrace the pain

[Mark Lawrence]

On 16/03/2015 22:02, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 4:20 AM, Michael Torrie <torriem at gmail.com> wrote:
>> A bit off topic here, but all of this highlights major weaknesses in the
>> Linux software distribution model. While we Linux nerds like to poke fun
>> at Windows for not even having a proper package manager until Windows
>> 10, in fact the package manager is not always the best way to go.  Works
>> well for core system parts, and for distro maintainers.  But it sucks
>> miserably for developers, and to a lesser degree, end users.  I should
>> be able to have a stable core distro like RHEL 7 (or any distro), but
>> develop and distribute apps for Python 3 easily.  Say what you want
>> about Red Hat's Poettering, but what he says about this problem makes a
>> lot of sense:
>> http://0pointer.net/blog/revisiting-how-we-put-together-linux-systems.html.
>
> It most assuredly does NOT suck for end users. Apart from issues of
> naming (grab "avconv" or "ffmpeg"?), it's easy - if someone needs to
> do audio manipulation, I can tell him/her to "sudo apt-get install
> sox" and that'll get the necessary program on any Debian-based distro,
> and likewise one command for any Red Hat distro. I'm not sure what you
> mean by "for developers" - do you mean that it's hard to package your
> software for each distro? Because the package manager benefits you
> even if you don't package your own program. Imagine you need a
> PostgreSQL database for your Python application - which also means you
> need psycopg2, of course. How do you go about writing installation
> instructions?
>
> * WINDOWS *
> 1) Install the latest Python 3 from https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
> 2) Install the appropriate version of psycopg2 from
> http://www.stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/
> 3) Install the latest PostgreSQL from
> http://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/
> 4) Install my program from blah blah blah
>

pip install xyz fits *MY* needs, so blow you Jack, I'm all right. 
Hopefully to be part of IDLE as well, that should save the teachers or 
trainers from changing a few nappies.

-- 
My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask
what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence