[csw-maintainers] Python 2.7

[Maciej (Matchek) Bliziński]

2013/7/20 Peter FELECAN <pfelecan at opencsw.org>:
> "Maciej (Matchek) Bliziński" <maciej at opencsw.org> writes:
>
>> 2013/7/20 Peter FELECAN <pfelecan at opencsw.org>
>>>
>>> Look at what Debian has done to make the transition. They are not using
>>> specific 2.7 packages, the differentiation is 2 versus 3 which is
>>> understandable as there is an incompatibility between code written for 2
>>> running in 3.
>>
>> I don't think they broke Python 2.6. Or did they? They have a special
>> mechanism for sharing modules between 2.6 and 2.7.
>
> Which is? Anyhow, they don't have the equivalent of CSWpy27-foo. A 2.x
> package is a 2.x package.

The Debian policy discusses 2.5 vs 2.6, but it's the same discussion.

http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/python-policy/ch-python.html

"A common location to share, across Python versions, arch-independent
files which would otherwise go to the directory of system public
modules is /usr/share/pyshared."

>>> I would like to be understood that what I'm aiming at is 2 pronged:
>>>
>>> 1. minimal investment
>>> 2. fastest turn around
>>
>> With Python 2.6 being expendable?
>
> Why do you think so?
>
> In my current endeavor, I come to realize that our Python eco-system is
> brain damaged.
>
> What I propose is  not to lobotomize, but to have brain surgery.

A plan that could work, is the following:

- rebuild 2.6 with /opt/csw/bin/python controlled by the alternatives system
- build 2.7 as you did, with /opt/csw/lib/python/site-packages as an
extra module search path, and with /opt/csw/bin/python also controlled
by alternatives
- keep using the CSWpy- package name prefix
- keep building 2.x modules with Python 2.6 only; never build modules
with 2.7 and never put them into the
/opt/csw/lib/python2.7/site-packages directory
- keep Python 3.x completely separate, with CSWpy33- package name prefix

The downside is that we're still using the bad site packages
directory. The upside is that this scenario meets all the basic
criteria:

- keep 2.6 working
- easy to do

Maciej