[Asterisk-Dev] Dev call 1.2 release discussion

[Travis]

I believe this just to be a side effect of you pruning the list of
packages you wish to install.  Python is available to be installed on
the system in a package.  You could have just as easily not selected to
install the development tools package as well, which levels the two at
equal footing -- no more, no less.

I do commend you for being selective of which packages to install, but I
was referring to availability to install python.  On all distributions
that I am aware of (which would encompass the ones the vast majority
that people would be installing on), python is readily available.  There
is no hindrance.

I would like to throw this next part out there into the list.  This is
not directed to you Matt, nor am what I about to say a reflection of the
developers of asterisk -- I believe you all to be wonderful, capable
people.  The developer:user ratio of asterisk is very weak.  In fact, it
seems to me that users seem to expect the absolute best of asterisk and
it should not be flawed, etc.  However, except for the developers, they
are not willing to put in the work.  I completely agree with you that
the autotools CAN work.  GNOME uses them with all of their doings, and
that is fantastic -- for them.  However, in this community where the
worker bees are spread thin, I would not wish to tie them down into
trying to hassle with this system.  It can be burdensome. 

So many people say they do not want to tie down asterisk with
dependencies.  I admire this: I do believe it is an excellent virtue to
hold.  However,* installing python is not a critical process*.  I am not
a big hot shot in python.  I do however completely see the power of its
abilities.

I would like to point to an article that a friend has shown me. 
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/3882/print  written by ESR.

If you want the best of asterisk, fine.  We all want it.  However, I
feel the consequence of achieving this is to build asterisk around a
powerful installer that more people can easily write against.  The power
of python extends into realms that allows us to write the 'make
menuconfig' idea in python, easily, fast, and reliably.  This keeps the
developer's heads in the asterisk code, not the Makefile -esk code.

This is not a rant, though I apologize for length.  The reason why I
continue to push this idea is that I believe that all arguments against
Scons (and python) that I have seen thus far to be weak.  I am looking
for the victory of asterisk, not of what I argument I make.  I only hope
that you will all look at it seriously and stop contending fault in
Scons because of the installation of a package, that is supplied by the
distributions, as a damning effacement.

Thanks,
Trav

Matthew Boehm wrote:

>>RedHat 7.  I find it near certain that any person compiling asterisk has
>>a system with python 1.5.2 or greater.
>>    
>>
>
>I have to disagree here. I just installed RedHat 9 on 3 machines last week
>and not one has python installed.
>
>I vote for the standard: ./configure; make; make install  method.
>
>-Matthew
>
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