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

[Andreas Jung]

--On 11. Mai 2007 10:20:41 -0700 Michael Bernstein <webmaven at cox.net> wrote:

> 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).

Wel, shame on the maintainer shipping Ubuntu with a RC version. But I must 
admit that our "configure" is pretty much stupid when it comes to the Python
detection.

>
> 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).

The Ubuntu Python seems to work. But as you might know there are lot of 
stripped down Python versions in various distro making your Python life a 
hell. I remember having to deal with a Debian installation where the Debian 
***** removed a profiling related module just because it did not fit their 
license policy. That's why we recommend to install your own Python for a 
Zope installation.
>
>> 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.

A castrated Python installation causes more pain.

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

Well, the packagers could do a better job by documenting their changes for 
the end user. When you install from the Zope source then we have 
documentation enough how to install and setup an installation. But obviously
very packagers has his own ideas about paths, configurations and startup 
scripts.

Andreas

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