[DOC-SIG] Postscript vs. PDF

[Guido van Rossum]

> >So I propose the following set of distributions:
> >
> >    - Full source distribution, containing C source, Latex doc source, and
> >    the standard library
> >
> >    - Small source distribution, containing C source and the standard library
> >
> >    - HTML distribution
> >
> >    - PostScript distribution
> >
> >    - PDF distribution
> >
> >    - Platform specific Unix binary distributions; these don't include
> >    HTML nor the standard library, only the python binary and dynamically
> >    loaded extensions (if applicable)
> >
> >    - Addeddum for platform specific Unix binary distributions, containing
> >    the standard library and the HTML docs
> 
> Hmmm, maybe python.org (CNRI?) personnel don't manage the non-Unix stuff due
> to lack of PCs in-house but I don't see any Non-Unix distributions in your
> list above.

No, I simply wasn't thinking of that yet, as it is being done somewhat
separately.

> I'm certainly willing to provide a complete OS/2 binaries set at
> any point in time.

Thanks!

> For the PC world, I'd propose:

I can do the PC distributions but not PythonWin.  PythonWin (and Mark
Hammond's other stuff like COM support and Active Scripting and
Debugging) will be distributed separately, as add-ons.  But the core
will be coming from me.

>     End-User Distribution:
>         Platform-specific binaries and dyn extensions, standard library,
>         and HTML documentation.

Platform specific?  The only platforms I can currently support are
Intel running Windows 95 or NT, and these can be one distribution.

>     This package lets a new user pick his platform and get up and running
>     as quickly as possible, and gives him a single download.  New users
>     often want to hit-and-run a web site and get enough to evaluate whether
>     to invest more time.  I would provide docs in HTML only here, to minimize
>     the user's investment in effort.

Agreed completely, with the proviso that the CNRI distribution won't
contain a fancy IDE -- it will require youto use notepad (or whatever
editor you chose for plain text) to edit .py files and run them in a
DOS box.  It *will* support Tkinter, but you have to install Tcl/Tk
separately (I can provide a link to the download though).

>     Developer-Kit Addendum Distribution:
>         Include files, link libraries
> 
>     This package is for the part-time developer who wants to extend or
>     embed Python but not become a full kernel developer.  His work would
>     take the form of DLLs that get imported by a Python script.

This seems nice on the face of it, but I doubt that it is very
useful.  In practice, until we improve the documentation quite a bit,
most such developers end up having to read the source even if they
stay away from recompiling it.  In the future when I get my
documentation act together this would be useful though.

>     Full Developer Distribution:
>         C sources, include files, standard library
> 
>     This package is for the developer who wants to totally rebuild Python
>     and hence includes no binaries.  Such a developer will have diverse
>     tastes in docs and will pick his flavor from one of the below:
> 
>     HTML Distribution:
>         Only documentation
> 
>     PDF Distribution:
>         Only documentation
> 
>     Postscript Distribution:
>         Only documentation

And these can be the same ones as for the Unix distribution, I
presume.  WinZip can handle .tar.gz files just fine, so I don't see a
big reason to distribute everything twice, once as .tar.gz and once as
.zip.  I also don't see a reason to make the documentation for Windows
set different than the set for Unix, yet.

> And as I said, I've willing to echo back any release in
> platform-specific format.  I'd just like to see the platform
> section on the main www.python.org page cleaned up a bit,
> listing all platforms supported and giving an easy way to
> download.  Right now you have to rummage around a bit in the
> FTP area.

A cleanup of python.org would indeed be most welcome.  Maybe in the
new year, or when the Python Consortium takes off -- there simply
aren't enough hours in the day to do the work (besides all the other
stuff we do at CNRI).

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)


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