"Lite" vs. "Full" Python Ports

[Bryan Blackburn]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 07:46:04PM +0200, Arthur Koziel said:
> 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.

Newer python versions are going with the install-them-all method; see

<http://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#pydeps>

>
> 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.

Do note that 'minimal python interpreter' has vague definitions at best;
many expect 'python' to be just that, which includes everything from sqlite3
support to IDLE.app working (which needs tkinter).

Picking between confusing & incomplete installs verses one that brings in a
few megs of other dependencies but works completely and consistency, the
choice should hopefully be clear...

>
> 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.

It would be nice to move 2.4 and 2.5 (or at least 2.5) to the same model as
2.6+, but that is quite a bit of work; not to update the python25 port but
to remove all the dependencies which have built up using those modules that
would no longer be needed.

I've started bringing modules into py26-* from the py- and py25- side, so
maybe we can start moving everything possible over to 2.6 and not worry too
much about the older versions.

Bryan


>
> Arthur.