[Pythonmac-SIG] a beginner's list

[has]

Ronald Oussoren wrote:

>>Mac OS X 10.5 will surely ship with at least 2.4.2,
>
>Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what apple will do? ;-) ;-)

My bet is they start the Ascent to Transcendence any day now...


>This is a very good reason for not pointing newbies to the system python
>on pythonmac.org: unless anyone steps up to *seriously* support the
>system python there won't be properly packages extension packages for
>the system python.

My concern would be that someone steps up with the noble intent of supporting a large number of repackagings, only for their enthusiasm to wear off after a few months after they realise how much long-term work they've committed themselves to. (i.e. Don't bite off more than you can chew.)

The sensible thing would probably be to work out what the dozen most-used 3rd-party packages for casual users are likely to be, and commit to maintaining pkgs those for the next year or two. A modest number like that shouldn't create too onerous a workload; enough for the default Python to keep casual users happy without turning into an excessive duplication of effort. e.g. I'm happy to continue providing both 2.3 and 2.4 binary installers for appscript as it's no more work for me, so that's one of the dirty dozen covered right there.


As has been said elsewhere, if the aim is to market Python to a broad audience then it's at least as much an exercise in influencing perceptions as technical merit. And often folk just don't like to be presented with a long list of things to download and install before they're able to do anything. e.g. Back before Nick stepped in with his all-in-one installer, some folks fair moaned about having to install a half-dozen simple distutils packages in order to use appscript. Even though the latter approach only took an extra minute or two in practice, in the end it was simpler and much more effective to cater to their "unreasonable" demands than lecture them on why "they" were "wrong".

Like I say, perceptions count. And first impressions more than anything else. Technical arguments alone aren't enough; things have to *look* and *sound* simple too.


>I do support system python for PyObjC, but even there it is mostly
>"lets check if it still works" around release time. For day-to-day work
>I'm using a framework installation of Python 2.4.

And it's all much appreciated.

Cheers,

has
-- 
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/