Re: CML2 with python1

["Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>]

Jan Harkes <jaharkes@cs.cmu.edu>:
> But it _is_ entirely practical to run CML2 with a bog-standard python
> 1.5 interpreter. I just did a search/replace for the python2-ism's like
> 
>  <x> += <y>           =>  <x> = <x> + <y>, and
>  <string>.<op>(<arg>) => string.<op>(<string>, <arg>)
> 
> Worked around some missing functionality in the older shlex and curses
> modules and I can now use oldconfig, menuconfig, xconfig, and cmladvent
> with CML2 and a python1 interpreter. It also still works fine with
> python2 as well.
> 
> 	http://ravel.coda.cs.cmu.edu/cml2-1.9.4-python1.patch (36K)
> 
> 36K might sound like a lot, but given the fact that the CML python
> sources totals about 280KB, it is a pretty small diff, and the whole
> "but python2 isn't standard in distributions and the license is bad"
> argument can be dropped and we can get on with life.

It's a good try.  But there are some important things missing from
this patch -- notably the Textpad class, which is needed for doing
popup queries correctly.  

Also, arrow keys don't work under the curses implementation linked
with in Red Hat's python1.5.  This is a symptom of a deeper problem,
which is that older Pythons link the Berkeley curses library rather
than ncurses.

Clicking on a URL link with bomb xconfig with this patch under 1.5.  You
didn't handle `import webbrowser' failure.  Easy thing to miss.

I personally added the ncurses/Textpad/ascii features to the Python
libraries shipped in 2.0, and I did it for a reason -- to support what
`make menuconfig' needs.  Backporting to 1.5.2 is only going to give a
partial, ugly subset of menuconfig.  I don't think it's good enough.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. 
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