[csw-maintainers] Support for multiple Python versions

[Maciej (Matchek) Blizinski]

No dia 15 de Outubro de 2010 19:15, Philip Brown <phil at bolthole.com> escreveu:
> On 10/14/10, Ben Walton <bwalton at opencsw.org> wrote:
>> Excerpts from Maciej (Matchek) Blizinski's message of Thu Oct 14 20:00:08
>> -0400 2010:
>>
>>> Hard to upgrade by replacing.  Would be easier with an overlap:
>>> introduce the new one, build modules for it, then retire the old one
>>> when the time comes.
>>
>> Lets look at the Debian Python Policy.  It seems pretty sound and I'd
>> put it forward as a good (proven, working) model:
>>
>> http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/python-policy/ch-python.html#s-versions
>>
>> I like the wording:
>>....
>
> that is a VERY long document, and it is a front for a VERY complex system.
> It is dangerous for you to just quote one small part of it.
>
> Areas of concern: It references something most people, if not all
> people, on this list,  are completely unfamiliar with:
> debian "python-support" and "python-central" packages.
>
> I suspect there is a whole special framework in that.. somewhat
> similar to our current python class action script, but even more
> complicated.
> Do you want to research and summarize that further for us?
> Or Maciej?

I read the descriptions of these two packages:

http://packages.debian.org/sid/python-support
http://packages.debian.org/sid/python-central

The idea seems to be to provide a special mechanism to build modules
that can be used with more than one version of Python (or any version
of Python, not sure yet).  I haven't dissected their internal
workings, but I think that it's generally a way to make the life
easier and remove the need to build and distribute each module for
each Python version.  The first, python-support provides install-time
support such as compilation to bytecode.  The other, python-central,
is a helper tool to build Python modules compatible with multiple
Python versions.