Hi all,
Wouldn't it be a good thing to update a bit the Python distribution and
bring it more in line with the Perl one? Specifically:
1. cooker has python-numeric-17.3.0 while that package is up to version 20,
with very significant changes.
2. The Kompany releases a very nice set of Qt/Kde python bindings which
would make a great addition (the pygnome bindings are already in). Python
is a great language for prototyping/RAD/glue with C (and I've been a Perl
fan for years!). Having a more polished python setup "out of the box" would
be an asset for Mandrake, IMHO. See
http://www.thekompany.com/projects/pykde/?dhtml_ok=1 for details.
3. Just as it's lovely to have the perl-Image Magick bindings available,
why not level it with the Python ones? Details at
http://starship.python.net/crew/zack/pymagick
Sice I know that space is tight, I would suggest some candidates for
"killing" in cooker/LM8.1 to make space for the python stuff:
1- Klyx: this is a kde port of lyx, but made out of a *Very* old codebase.
I don't think anyone uses klyx for serious work anymore, as the lyx backend
has changed and evolved tremendously since the fork (correct me if
mistaken). And Mandrake already includes lyx (one of the reasons why I
switched to Mandrake in the first place :-). So kill klyx and just leave
the nice, stable powerful lyx. For those who complain about xforms (the
ugly toolkit lyx is based on) don't worry: the lyx guys are hard at work on
a gui-independent codebase which will have in the future native kde and
gnome frontends accessing the same backend.
2- Games: some of the arcade type games are *huge*. I have the impression
that people who are seriously into gaming buy the nice fancy commercial
stuff, and those who are not (like me) couldn't care less about having all
that space taken up. I'd much rather have it be used for other useful
things. Leave the lightweight ones for entertainment, but maybe move the
big ones out to an "extras" ftp area.
As I said, I've long been a perl fan but I've been very impressed by python
recently. I was a bit disappointed to find that Mandrake's python setup
felt a bit sloppy compared to how comprehensive and up to date its perl
setup is. Hopefully others will agree enough for the Mandrake developers to
accept some of these suggestions.
Regards,
Fernando.
