[Pythonmac-SIG] install again?

[Christopher Barker]

lanceboyle at qwest.net wrote:
> I agree pretty much completely with Charles Harman, Bill Janssen, and  
> others.

So do I, however....

This is Open Source software! Which doesn't mean that it can't be great 
in every way, but it does mean that it is developed for different 
reasons than commercial software, and it will have different features.

All of us that contribute to the MacPython community have other jobs, 
and are only contributing what we can out of the goodness of our hearts, 
essentially. The reason much open source software is short on easy 
installers and documentation for newbies is that the people capable of 
developing those things don't need them.

 > This
> requires letting go of your ego and imagining what the world looks  
> like from their viewpoint.

No, it doesn't. It means taking our own precious time to make something 
for someone else, just to be nice. That's asking a LOT

 > Make an Installer
> for Dummies. Make an IDE that works in the Mac way. (Where are you,  
> Glenn?) Make Cocoa access automatic with the installation. Make a  
> simplified, high-level Cocoa-based GUI API. Make an easy and coherent  
> add-on method. Make adding SciPy and Chaco a no-brainer. (Oops--wrong  
> list.) Never require a user to build his/her own software. Don't  
> expand the user's lexicon with the likes of mpkg, egg, setuptools,  
> patches, distutils, and so on.

That would be a great list IF the primary goal was creating a easy tool 
for newbies to use. I think there is real commercial potential in making 
such a tool based on Python, but I'm not in the business of selling 
software, I'm in the business of doing Oceanography.

> You are making end-user software.

No, we're not. Most of the Python, MacPython, SciPy etc. community is 
making software for ourselves to use. Other end users are a nice bonus.

> Python with a good Mac-way IDE has so much potential to reach the  
> same usability as THINK Pascal did in 1984.

Yes, it does, but it won't be built until someone who is capable of 
building it wants it enough to put the time it. I suspect that that will 
only happen if someone decides to try to make money from it.

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
                                     		
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