[Python-ideas] Adding iOS/Android support to Python

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Hi Nick,

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 11:25 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 25 October 2014 12:20, Russell Keith-Magee <russell at keith-magee.com>
> wrote:
> > I'd like to start supporting more recent versions of Python - most
> > importantly, Python 3. While I could certainly continue maintaining
> patches
> > externally (and I imagine I'll have to if I want to maintain Python 2.7
> > support), I'd like to see that effort integrated into Python's
> repository.
>
> Maintaining support for new versions of existing platforms is already
> within scope for Python  2.7, so if you get this working for Python 3,
> it *might* be possible to make the case for 2.x. However, it would
> only be feasible to make that determination after we had a better idea
> as to the magnitude of the changes involved, and the risks introduced
> for other platforms.
>

Good to know - I'll keep this in mind.


> > In particular, there are four areas where I can see changes required:
> >  3) Disabling certain modules on mobile platforms. Supporting modules
> like
> > linuxaudiodev, ossaudiodev, readline, curses, idle and tkinter on mobile
> > platforms doesn't make much sense; modules likes bsddb and bz2 are
> difficult
> > to support due to library dependencies; and the need for modules like
> > multiprocessing is arguable (and difficult to support on mobile). Even
> > providing a Python executable/shell is arguable for these platforms.
> >
> > However, I would anticipate that 3 might raise some concerns, as the
> general
> > Python "batteries included" philosophy would be modified to "unless
> you're
> > on one of these platforms". Any guidance on whether this approach would
> be
> > palatable? Is there any precedent for "module not supported on platform
> X"
> > that I'm not aware of?
>
> Yes, platform specific features are actually quite common (search the
> docs for "Availability:"). It's just the fact that folks writing
> cross-platform code tend to avoid those modules/features, so they're
> largely only known to folks writing lower level (or otherwise platform
> specific) code.


Good point - I hadn't thought about the OS-specific bits of the existing
std lib.


> > Any platforms where Python is *only* available as a
> > library?
>
> The CPython main.c is a fairly thin shim around Py_Main anyway, so I
> don't see it as a big deal whether the standard CLI is included as
> part of the mobile builds.


Ok - I'll keep that in mind as I work on my patches.


> > So - am I completely wasting my time? Are patches for mobile platforms
> > likely to be accepted into Python's repository?
>
> I think both iOS and Android are well and truly established enough now
> as platforms to be worth targeting directly. For the CI problem, it
> may be worth approaching Xamarin, as setting up the infrastructure for
> doing that ourselves looks like a formidable engineering challenge we
> don't currently have the relevant skillsets to provide.
>

Is this said in the context of "we (Python) have an existing relationship
with Xamarin, and we should lean on those contacts", or "we should really
develop a relationship with Xamarin"?

Yours,
Russ Magee %-)
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