[ZF] LWN: Fedora7 dropping Zope due to Python 2.5 incompatibility

[Michael Bernstein]

On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 07:10 +0200, Andreas Jung wrote:
> 
> In addition our support for packaged versions of Zope is very limited.
> Installing Zope from sources is much easier and better documented than
> any packaged Zope version where people don't know where the packager
> has moved the configurations and the startup command.

Installing Zope from source is not always easier. The 6.10 Ubuntu
release (Edgy Eft) included a release candidate version of Python
(2.4.4c1) that the Zope source configure file chokes on (ie. '2.4.4c1'
isn't the target version or in the list of the 'acceptable' versions).

This can be remedied easily enough by making a two-letter edit to the
cinfigure file, so it is not a serious stumbling block, nor am I
suggestion that we should make any special accommodation for Ubuntu or
any other distribution, but it does demonstrate that compiling from
source is not *necessarily* a 'just works' solution.

Note however that the Ubuntu packaged Zope3 does install correctly with
the system python (whatever the version happens to be).

Also note that the latest Ubuntu, 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) solves the Python
2.4 problem by including 2.4.4 final, but potentially creates the same
situation WRT 2.5, by including 2.5.1c1. <sigh> I am making sure this
has a bit more visibility for the next release (7.10, or Gutsy Gibbon).

> And the best-practice approach for deploying Zope is still installing
> Zope and Python from the sources.

True, but installing Python from source to a workstation is an extra
(and not strictly necessary) step for experimentation purposes. And each
minor stumbling block can have a cumulative effect on adoption.

In any case, time spent to make life easier for packagers can be a very
effective investment.

- Michael R. Bernstein
  michaelbernstein.com