A couple I accidentally left off my original list: Rationalise *.pkg and *.pth files ---------------------------------
site.py processes *.pth files in the site-packages directory (the exact location being platform dependent) and adds things to sys.path as per the documentation of the site module. pkgutil.extend_path processes *.pkg files as per the documentation of the pkgutil module. *.pkg files are generally easier to handle than *.pth files - are the additional features of *.pth files really needed? What advantages do *.pth files offer over a normal Python module in site-packages (or anywhere else on the system path) that uses pkgutil.extend_path() to set the module's __path__ attribute? Use an interpreter configuration file? -------------------------------------- PYTHONPATH and the other interpreter controlling environment variables are shared between Python interpreters. This may cause problems if multiple versions of the interpreter are installed on a single machine. On Windows, some additional configuration data is squirreled away in the Windows registry by the installer (although this data is at least version specific). Jython deals with configuration aspects like PYTHONPATH in a cross-platform fashion by consulting a hierarchy of configuration data (system defaults, installation configuration file, user configuration file, command line argument overrides) [1]. In addition to being more consistent across platforms, the generic configuration file and -D property definition mechanism used by Jython is also more extensible than CPython's current approach of having to define a new command line switch or environment variable for each configurable option. Obviously, restraint would still be needed in the addition of configuration options in order to prevent a blowout in the number of scenarios requiring testing. [1] http://www.jython.org/docs/registry.html -- Nick Coghlan | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Brisbane, Australia --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.boredomandlaziness.org _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
