On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 22:24, Steve Holden <st...@holdenweb.com> wrote: > On 12/5/2010 10:11 PM, Brett Cannon wrote: >> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 13:06, "Martin v. Löwis" <mar...@v.loewis.de> wrote: >>>> Well, is it more popular because that is just what people are used to >>>> downloading or the first download link on the web page? Or is it >>>> because people fundamentally prefer tgz files over tar.bz2? >>> >>> These questions are difficult to answer with the download stats alone. >>> If you really want to know, we should setup a poll... >> >> I could if people care, but I don't anyone does. >> >>> >>>> Are there >>>> actual platforms that can't handle tar.bz2 but can handle tgz? >>> >>> That, in turn, is easy to answer: yes, there are. Certain Solaris >>> releases had gzip available (even though /usr/bin/tar wouldn't know >>> how to invoke it), but no bzip2 utility. >> >> If these are Solaris platforms we support then that's fine and we >> should keep tgz files, but if these are platforms we no longer care >> about then I say the lives of release managers should be simplified by >> cutting tgz files. >> >>> >>>> I'm >>>> willing to bet it's because of the download link order and has nothing >>>> to do with actual preference (especially since we don't state file >>>> size on the download page). >>> >>> Not sure what page you are looking at; on >>> >>> http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7/ >>> >>> we do. >> >> I was actually looking at that page, but the size specifics are below >> the download links and are only noticeable if you scroll far enough >> down. I doubt I am the only person who has made that mistake. >> >> -Brett >> >>> >>>> Personally I don't know why we have both tgz and tar.bz2 other than >>>> tradition. I say trim it down to tar.bz2 for portability and move on >>>> to using a ustar-based tar.xz to be cutting edge and minimize download >>>> size overall while making it the first download option to make sure >>>> people notice it. I'd also vote for listing the file size on the >>>> download page, but that's just another step for release managers that >>>> I don't want to burden them with. >>> >>> You would also need to specify what page you refer to as "the download >>> page". >>> > Surely this is all bike shedding.
I don't think so when we are trying to make getting a new release easier w.r.t. smaller source download. > Will anyone fail to download Python > because we don't offer a .xz foramt download? I sincerely doubt it. I do as well. > So > what do we gain by such an addition to compensate for the increasing > complexity to be faced during releases? It only increases complexity if we don't cut one of the tar.bz2 or tgz source releases. But by offering a a tar.xz file we can give people a smaller download which saves everyone time and bandwidth which can matter if the downloader's Internet connection is slow and/or costly. -Brett > > regards > Steve > -- > Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 > PyCon 2011 Atlanta March 9-17 http://us.pycon.org/ > See Python Video! http://python.mirocommunity.org/ > Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ > _______________________________________________ python-committers mailing list python-committers@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-committers
