[PYTHONMAC-SIG] MacPython 1.5 questions and suggestions

[Steven D. Majewski]

Trying out an old plugin with Mac Python 1.5a3, I get an error 
from the import because the core library is named "PythonCore 1.5a3"
instead of "PythonCorePPC" as previously. 

Is this name change intention because there are significant enough
mods that 1.4 plugins *shouldn't* work with 1.5 Core ? 

(OR)
Is the name change intentional so that you can fiddle with the 
new alphas and keep the old core around without any problems ? 


(OR)
Is this name change intentional because nobody wanted to muck 
about and figure out how library versioning works on the Mac. 


If it's any other than the first, I may try to look into it and
see if there is a better way. ( That's the point of shared 
libraries -- the ought to be drop replacable unless the interface
has changed. ( And I keep running into things (MacSWIG was the latest),
that won't run under MacOS 8 because they use a beta of Tk8.0. ))


What do you think about splitting the Tk library out of the Core PPC 
Library ?  Although, we might still distribute it in the Python
binary distribution, so that folks aren't required to gather up
different bits from around the net -- but they could also upgrade
Tk, if an 8.01 appears, without rebuilding Python. ( assuming 
the Tck/Tk folks don't much with the names also. )
 Also, it could be possible to use a weak import so that it will
run without the Tk libraries present. ( This requires a minor change
to the source to check that the library entry point is not Null 
before calling the init. ) 



---|  Steven D. Majewski   (804-982-0831)  <sdm7g@Virginia.EDU>  |---
---|  Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics  |---
---|  University of Virginia             Health Sciences Center  |---
---|  P.O. Box 10011            Charlottesville, VA  22906-0011  |---
All power corrupts and obsolete power corrupts obsoletely." - Ted Nelson


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