Eliminating X dependency from python

[Joshua Root]

On 2010-7-12 20:20 , Rainer Müller wrote:
> On 07/07/2010 02:28 AM, Michael_google gmail_Gersten wrote:
>> >From the FAQ:
>>  Using variants is bad as that requires a complete rebuild of the port
>> in order to add a given module (like readline support); also,
>> dependencies can't specify variants currently (see ticket #126).
>>
>> Using separate ports for these modules (like py-readline) avoids the
>> need to completely rebuild the base port, and can be used as a
>> dependency, but ends up having other issues.
>>
>> Based on that, I'd expect python-26 to just be python, and python-26X
>> to be the gui components on top of that.
> 
> That's the entire problem. Back then pythonXY had variants, users
> expected pythonXY to be "just python" and urged us to distribute the
> full "batteries included" installation as provided on the upstream website.
> 
> Therefore full installation was made the default as it is now. This is
> also the reliable choice as there are no dependencies on specific
> variants. I guess it is not possible to split python26 into multiple
> ports, as it is being build from a single source.

You can review much of the history in
<http://trac.macports.org/ticket/12369>. Summary: People didn't like
that python had so many dependencies, so many core modules were split
into separate ports; other people then didn't like that python didn't
"just work" (and the separate module ports didn't behave quite the same
as installing them using the main python build system), so they were put
back.

It's probably possible to split out the core modules in such a way that
95% of users are satisfied, but I doubt the current maintainers are
interested in creating that amount of work for themselves.

- Josh