Andreas Röhler <[email protected]> writes:
> If we provide the next Python-mode/Pymacs release using Make as Pymacs
> does, the top directory should contain only the minimal requiring,
> i.e, INSTALL, README etc.
Hi, Andreas, and gang.
Recently, I noticed that pymacs.el within python-mode (should be
Pymacs.el from now on), has a small local modification. When Emacs
launches the Python helper, it first does:
" sys.path.insert(1, os.getenv('PYMACS_INSTALL_DIR'));"
Let me comment a bit about this change:
* Nowhere in python-mode README nor INSTALL, this PYMACS_INSTALL_DIR
environment variable is presented nor explained, while it really
should. Average Python mode users are unlikely to guess they have to
set this environment variable prior to calling Emacs.
* The change addresses a need that python-mode has and which Pymacs
currently does not offer, which is the need of use it without prior
installation. Don't shudder, I'm surely not going to ask you to go to
GitHub and file a report about this. If I needed it, I'd do it myself
rather than ask others to do it in my place -- you know me! :-)
* It would be comfortable that python-mode could work with the minimum
setup possible. Granted that Pymacs is not the easiest thing to
package, especially since the advent of Python 3. Yet, if we could
avoid the formal installation step, it would be nice.
* I first thought about yet another Emacs variable to tell where
exactly sits Pymacs.py, but this is not a good idea. If Emacs is
not able to find Pymacs.py, other Python modules written by users
would also be unable to import from Pymacs. It would be broken,
just at a later stage.
* So, if Pymacs.py is not installed or not available in the regular
Python search path, it better be somewhere along the
pymacs-load-path list. So my idea would be to launch the Pymacs
helper from any Pymacs.py found in a directory listed in
pymacs-load-path. If none found, then it would fall back on looking
elsewhere in the system. Does it sound reasonable? Does someone
see a flaw in this?
Have a nice evening, everybody.
François
P.S. A few more points, maybe, conveying personal opinions:
* If python-mode distributes packages copied from external sources
(Pymacs in this example, there are a few others), it should pay
attention at keeping its copies reasonably up-to-date. Otherwise
confusion, then frustration will eventually develop.
* Observed flaws or developed corrections for packages included in
python-mode from external source should be duly reported upstream.
The GPL applies of course, one may play by the law (I recently read
python-mode archives, and saw such games acted by David Love, which
were not always tasteful). My point is that symmetrical collaboration
is more polite, and likely more fruitful in the long run.
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