"Lite" vs. "Full" Python Ports

[Arthur Koziel]

Hello,

I'm writing this because of ticket #12369 [http://trac.macports.org/ticket/12369 
], which is 21 months old and still hasn't been resolved. The general  
problem is whether the python25 port should include core modules  
(hashlib, sqlite3, ...) or not.

The current python25 port doesn't install the core modules. It expects  
the user to install the ones he need. This leads to some confusion, as  
new users generally assume that "core modules" like hashlib should  
always be available (and a lot python script do rely on them).

On the other hand, if the python25 port would enable all modules a lot  
of dependencies would get pulled in (9 in total; see the third comment  
in the ticket for a list). Not everyone wants to have these ports  
installed. Some people just want to have a minimal python interpreter.

Additionally, there seems to be a inconsistency with all python ports  
regarding this issue. The python24 port doesn't install core modules  
(same as python25) but python26 installs them. It would be great if we  
could have a consistent approach to this.

Arthur.