Re: Using python + pygtk in Desktop modules

["Murray Cumming" <murrayc murrayc com>]

> More that they aren't synced with GNOME.  You have GNOME 2.x, but then
> it's either running with Python 2.2, or maybe 2.3, or maybe 2.4.

No, I think a specific version of GNOME will target a specific version of
python.

>  You
> can't target GNOME 2.x as a developer, you have to target GNOME 2.x +
> Python 2.y.

Well, I see no reason that x must equal y. They are just numbers.

> Say I want to develop an app.  I develop it against GNOME 2.2 and
> distribute some packages/installers.  I only need to target different
> base platforms.  Now add Python.  Now you've just multiplied the number
> of different platforms by several times.

Again,  I think a specific version of GNOME will target a specific version
of python. That's what the whole #! thing is about.

>  Let's pretend Mozilla was made
> part of the Platform.  Whoosh, big huge increase in target platforms.

Mozilla is already a GNOME Desktop dependency. It is one of the platforms
on which we depend.

[snip]

>> Here are the Platform Bindings rules, if you are interested:
>> http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/bindings/rules.html
>
> The problem I see is if distros don't *also* always include the older
> releases of the bindings,
[snip]
>  They try to install my
> app, but it doesn't work, because there is no gtkmm 2.4 package for FC5.
> If my app were developed against the C bindings, it would work fine
> (assuming the glibc/gcc people didn't decide to screw users again).

I think that your mythical cross-distro package system must resolve
dependencies somehow. I don't want anything to do with it if it doesn't
let me use an extra library now and then. That's not a development
platform.

[snip]
> I'm not sure there's a whole lot of room left in this debate.  This
> seems less an issue of fact vs fact and more one of opinion vs opinion;
> I value ABI stability above _almost_ anything else when it comes to a
> development platform.

Agreed, and as far as I can tell, the pygtk people have shown us that
there is not a problem, despite our best efforts to find one.

Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com