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KevinH · 09-30-2014, 12:09 AM

Hi Kovid,
According to user-none we may end up packaging Python at some point. But doing things this way we can support both Python 2 and Python 3 as the same launcher code will now run on both. If we package in Python, we would have to choose one as adding in both would make the download huge.

Given Python 2.7 is in maintenance mode, we would probably go with Python 3, and I would then need to convert KindleUnpack to work with both versions of Python just as the launcher code does now.

But as you said, we could then control exactly what packages are included.

I am not too worried about Linux users figuring out which Python packages to add. And even Mac OS X packages all the way back to 10.5 have pretty full versions of Python with Tk. So it is really the Windows users that seem to need the help and seem to be the most hesitant to download and install Python. ActiveStates Active Python community edition for Windows is quite full featured, is totally free, is well supported., comes with Tk, and has its own easy to use installer. I am simply astounded by how many people seem to fear installing it.

I will talk it over with user-none to see what he thinks. If we do decide to package Python 3, we could add lxml and pyqt and even use Python internally to add new Sigil features.

Thanks,

KevinH

09-30-2014, 12:09 AM	#64
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,884 Karma: 6120478 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Hi Kovid, According to user-none we may end up packaging Python at some point. But doing things this way we can support both Python 2 and Python 3 as the same launcher code will now run on both. If we package in Python, we would have to choose one as adding in both would make the download huge. Given Python 2.7 is in maintenance mode, we would probably go with Python 3, and I would then need to convert KindleUnpack to work with both versions of Python just as the launcher code does now. But as you said, we could then control exactly what packages are included. I am not too worried about Linux users figuring out which Python packages to add. And even Mac OS X packages all the way back to 10.5 have pretty full versions of Python with Tk. So it is really the Windows users that seem to need the help and seem to be the most hesitant to download and install Python. ActiveStates Active Python community edition for Windows is quite full featured, is totally free, is well supported., comes with Tk, and has its own easy to use installer. I am simply astounded by how many people seem to fear installing it. I will talk it over with user-none to see what he thinks. If we do decide to package Python 3, we could add lxml and pyqt and even use Python internally to add new Sigil features. Thanks, KevinH