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revamped README; the usual elsewhere...

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Guido van Rossum 1995-04-10 11:47:38 +00:00
parent 5dd52d37eb
commit 91cb9d2fda
4 changed files with 470 additions and 307 deletions
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86
BUGS
View file

@ -1,38 +1,14 @@
*** See the ChangeLog file for bugs fixed since 1.2 BETA 2 ***
Sorry, this list does not claim completeness. If I fixed a bug
immediately upon receiving the first complaint I usually did not
nother to make an entry in this file, unless it was a serious bug
(core dump or infinite loop).
THIS LIST DOES NOT CLAIM COMPLETENESS.
==> Status indicators: (-) not fixed; (*) fixed; (?) not sure.
======================================================================
Problems that are difficult to solve
------------------------------------
(-) "f()=0" generates syntax error msg without line number
======================================================================
Known BUGS in 1.2 BETA 1, fixed in 1.2 BETA 2
---------------------------------------------
(*) list slice assignment contains reantrancy bug
(*) range() and xrange() break on Alpha's
(*) interactive use of vars() gives barrage of output due to recursive
inclusion of '_'
(*) configure.in contains bogus name to check for inet library
Known BUGS in 1.1.1 and 1.2 BETA 3
----------------------------------
(-) still a memory leak in threads when thread.exit_thread() is used
Problems in 1.1.1 that are difficult to solve
---------------------------------------------
(-) tkinter seems to leave an exception around sometime which breaks
unmarshalling code objects [hard to reproduce, have added a trap to
marshal.c to catch it]
@ -49,9 +25,6 @@ called [problem: what if other threads are still active?]
Known portability problems
--------------------------
(-) tkinter doesn't seem to see any declaration of malloc on sunos
4.1.3?
(-) arraymodule doesn't compile under Ultrix (FPROTO macro)
(-) makesetup assumes CCC is the C++ compiler -- not portable
@ -67,6 +40,44 @@ LIBS=/usr/lib/libdld.sl) [hard to test without a HP machine handy]
BUGS present in 1.1.1 and fixed in 1.2
--------------------------------------
(*) extraneous fclose() in run_script() in pythonrun.c for .pyc file
(*) __str__ is called if it exists (and then fails) when applying
str() to a class
(*) mem leaks in inittime() in timemodule.c
(*) mem leak in optimize() in compile.c
(*) mem leak in func_dealloc() in funcobject.c
(*) missing DECREF for result of run_string in exec_statement() in
ceval.c
(*) missing INCREF in RAISE_EXCEPTION case after gettupleitem() in
ceval.c
(*) posix.utime gives problems on problems on platforms where struct
utime members are bitfields
(*) leak in regex module.c:reg_dealloc() -- should free compiled pattern
(*) many uses of macros from <ctype.h> fail with signed characters
(*) compilation on NeXT requires manual editing of the Makefile
(*) tkinter should cast malloc() result
(*) marshal.c (w_object()) triggers GCC bug on DEC Alpha
(*) int/long size bug in range() and xrange() on DEC Alpha
(*) memory leaks in dbm and gdbm modules
(*) refcnt bug in select.select([f], [f], [f])
(*) Should fflush(stdout) before printing traceback to stderr
(*) Linux uses GNU getopt by default which is broken
(*) make sharedinstall references to machdep directory but doesn't
@ -85,8 +96,8 @@ cmd line forgets a newline
(*) C-level coerce() doesn't call __coerce__ when it should (and
similar for __cmp__)
(*) struct module aligns doubles wrongly when compiled with -DDEBUG on
sparc
(*) struct module assigns unaligned doubles when compiled with -DDEBUG
on sparc
(*) memory leak (namebuf) in initmodule2
@ -234,14 +245,15 @@ Bugs found in 1.0.2 and not yet fixed
-------------------------------------
(?) compiler warnings about argument type of uname() on ULTRIX
machines (don't know what to do about it)
machines (don't know what to do about it) [could be fixed by fix for
bitfields in struct uname]
(?) syntax error for interactive input prints garbage instead of last
source line on some systems (e.g. AIX) (impossible to test/reproduce)
!!! I think I've found this one -- a missing INCREF in print_error!
[I think I've found this one -- a missing INCREF in print_error]
(?) (maybe) a bad .pyc file (with old magic number) causes the .py
file to be ignored
file to be ignored [should be fixed by rewrite of import.c]
(?) Sunos4.0.2 / 386 configure bugs:
- timelocal instead of mktime
@ -314,7 +326,7 @@ Bugs found in 1.0.1 and fixed in 1.0.2
BUGS found in 1.0.0 and not yet fixed
-------------------------------------
(?) On NeXT, need to define _POSIX_SOURCE.
(*) On NeXT, need to define _POSIX_SOURCE.
(?) there appears to be something wrong with gcc and -ldl on some
SunOS 4.1.3 systems

73
ChangeLog
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@ -1,3 +1,66 @@
Thu Apr 6 16:34:28 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Objects/classobject.c (instancemethod_compare): change the way
instance methods are compared -- don't apply cmpobject() to
im_self but do a simple pointer compare
* Objects/object.c: move counting of free'd objects (#ifdef
COUNT_ALLOCS) from DELREF() to UNREF()
* Include/object.h (_Py_ForgetReference()): add counting of free'd
objects (#ifdef COUNT_ALLOCS)
Tue Apr 4 13:53:47 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Objects/frameobject.c (newframeobject): changed dictlookup()
with constant C string arg to mappinglookup() with static Python
string (Sjoerd)
Fri Mar 31 12:26:03 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* irix5/tmp/lib/python/lib/frozenmain.c: carried through renaming
phase 3
Thu Mar 30 11:44:23 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* README: added warning about bash bug in certain Slackware Linux
version
* Doc/lib*.tex: reorganized into more subject-related chapters;
rewritten abstract and introduction
* Doc/myformat.sty: define \dfn{} as \em instead of \sl
* Modules/config.c.in: moved decl of realmain() out of #ifdef
* Python/pythonrun.c (print_error): added fflush(stdout) to
print_error() so output doesn't get mangled when stdout and stderr
are redirected to the same file
* Modules/selectmodule.c: fix subtle refcnt bugs with fd2obj
arrays (R Lindsay Todd)
* Include/object.h, Object/{tupleobject.c,stringobject.c},
Python/ceval.c: fix ref-count debugging (R Lindsay Todd)
* Python/sysmodule.c (sys_checkinterval): initialize to 10 as
before (major speed up!)
* Modules/cdmodule.c: use newgetargs; removed sbtoa() and
timetoa(); added msftoframe(); added constants that used to be in
standard module CD (Sjoerd)
* Modules/posixmodule.c: added WNOHANG constant
Fri Mar 24 14:55:48 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Lib/nntplib.py: rename debug() to set_debuglevel() as for
ftplib.py
Thu Mar 23 11:10:24 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Lib/posixfile.py (open): make mode default to 'r' and add
optional bufsize
========================================
==> Release 1.2 BETA 4 (21 Mar 1995) <==
@ -98,7 +161,7 @@ Thu Mar 9 15:06:02 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* configure(.in): added test for CC value not matching cache
* Modules/tkintermodule.c: add casts to malloc() calls"
* Modules/tkintermodule.c: add casts to malloc() calls in
tkintermodule.c
* Moved Demo/bgen, Demo/freeze, Demo/modulator and most of
@ -176,12 +239,6 @@ Fri Feb 17 12:00:29 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
Thu Feb 16 11:21:45 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Lib/tkinter/Tkinter.py (Entry): rename select_view method to
view
* Lib/tkinter/Dialog.py: set widgetName so test for photo in
Tkinter works
* Doc/libshelve.tex: added/reorganized list of restrictions
* Doc/libsocket.tex: added quick list of new exported symbols
@ -806,8 +863,6 @@ Mon Jan 2 20:15:39 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Modules/Makefile.pre.in (sharedinstall): fix bug (sh can't loop
over empty list) when $(SHAREDMODS) is empty
sMon Jan 2 19:35:49 1995 Guido van Rossum <guido@voorn.cwi.nl>
* Python/errors.c: added hook for better mac error messages
* Python/pythonrun.c (run_script): removed extraneous fclose() in

602
README
View file

@ -1,61 +1,105 @@
Python release 1.2
==================
This is Python release 1.2
==========================
==> This version provides new functionality as well as bug fixes.
Everyone should upgrade. For a description of what's changed, see
Misc/NEWS.
==> If you don't know yet what Python is: it's an interpreted,
extensible, embeddable, interactive, object-oriented programming
language. For a quick summary of what Python can mean for a
UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ.
What's new in this release?
---------------------------
==> If you want to start compiling right away (on UNIX): just type
"./configure" in the current directory and when it finishes, type
"make". See the section Build Instructions below for more
details.
This version provides new functionality as well as bug fixes, lots of
new documentation, and quite a few new library modules. Everyone
should upgrade. For a full list of what's new and changed, see
Misc/NEWS.
==> All documentation is in the subdirectory Doc in the form of LaTeX
files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut),
Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending
(ext). Note that especially the Library Reference is of immense
value since much of Python's power (including the built-in data
types and functions!) is described there. [NB The ext document
has not been updated to reflect this release yet.]
==> Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the copyright
notice at the end of this file. Moreover, the Python distribution
is not affected by the GNU Public Licence (GPL). There is support
for interfaces to some GNU code but this is entirely optional and
no GNU code is distributed with Python. For all these packages,
GPL-free public domain versions also exist.
What is Python anyway?
----------------------
Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language, and is
often compared to Tcl, Perl or Scheme. For a quick summary of what
Python can mean for a UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ.
If you don't read instructions
------------------------------
Congratulations on getting this far. :-)
To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
current directory and when it finishes, type "make". The section
Build Instructions below is still recommended reading. :-)
Copyright issues
----------------
Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the full copyright
notice at the end of this file.
The Python distribution is *not* affected by the GNU Public Licence
(GPL). There are interfaces to some GNU code but these are entirely
optional and no GNU code is distributed with Python. For all these
packages, GPL-free public domain versions also exist.
Build instructions
------------------
==================
Before you start building Python, you must first configure it. This
entails (at least) running the script "./configure", which figures out
your system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (This will
take a minute or two -- please be patient!) When it is done, you are
ready to run make. Typing "make" in the toplevel directory will
recursively run make in each of the subdirectories Parser, Objects,
Python and Modules, creating a library file in each one. The
executable of the interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory but
moved up here when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also
chdir into each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually
(do the Modules subdirectory last!). If you run into trouble, first
see the section Troubleshooting later in this file.
your system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (It takes a
minute or two -- please be patient!) When it's done, you are ready to
run make. Typing "make" in the toplevel directory will recursively
run make in each of the subdirectories Parser, Objects, Python and
Modules, creating a library file in each one. The executable of the
interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory and moved up here
when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also chdir into
each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually (do the Modules
subdirectory last!).
AIX users: read the file Misc/AIX-NOTES before trying to build.
NOTE: if you rerun the configure script with different options, remove
all object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe
it or not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable
problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report!
HP-UX users: read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES if you want to be able to
use shared libraries for dynamically loaded modules.
DEC Alpha users: unless you like debugging GCC, pass "--without-gcc"
to the configure script.
Troubleshooting
---------------
Minix users: when using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
If you run into trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for
hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
Platform specific notes
-----------------------
Linux: It is possible that "makesetup" fails with an obscure sed
error. This is a bug in bash. Replace /bin/sh with /bin/ash
in both makesetup and Makefile.pre.in. This has been observed
in Slackware version 2.2, bash 1.14.3; Slackware 2.1 did not
have the problem.
AIX: Read the file Misc/AIX-NOTES before trying to build.
HP-UX: Read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES if you want to be able to
use shared libraries for dynamically loaded modules.
Minix: When using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
SCO: 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the
defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken.
Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard it's
conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined.
2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt
stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS
needed be set to:
LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i'
Configuring the set of built-in modules
---------------------------------------
You can configure the interpreter to contain fewer or more built-in
modules by editing the file Modules/Setup. This file is initially
@ -67,12 +111,24 @@ make. When you have edited Setup, Makefile and config.c in Modules
will automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the
toplevel directory.
If you want to change the optimization level of the build, assign to
the OPT variable on the toplevel make command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will
build a debugging version of Python on most platforms. The default is
OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the environment when the configure script
is run overrides this default (likewise for CC; and the initial value
for LIBS is used as the base set of libraries to link with).
Especially on SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI
specific system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware.
Setting the optimization/debugging options
------------------------------------------
If you want to change the optimization/debugging options for the C
compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make command;
e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python on most
platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the environment
when the configure script is run overrides this default (likewise for
CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base set of
libraries to link with).
Testing
-------
To test the interpreter that you have just built, type "make test".
This runs the test set silently, twice (once with no compiled files,
@ -81,6 +137,20 @@ test run should print "All tests OK." and nothing more. (The test set
does not test the built-in modules, but will find most other problems
with the interpreter.)
IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report,
*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the
following command instead:
PYTHONPATH=../Lib:../Lib/test:./Modules ./python -c 'import testall'
(substituting the top of the source tree for .. if you built in a
different directory). This gives the output of the tests and shows
which test failed.
Installing
----------
To install the interpreter as /usr/local/bin/python, type "make
install". To install the library as /usr/local/lib/python, type "make
libinstall". To install the manual page as
@ -100,185 +170,112 @@ make libainstall target also installs copies of several other files
used or produced during the build process which are needed to build
extensions or to generate their Makefiles.
To print the documentation, cd into the Doc subdirectory, type "make"
(let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and send the four resulting
PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and ext.ps) to the printer.
See the README file there; you can also build a texinfo version of the
library manual and from that construct an Emacs info version (the
hypertext format used by the Emacs "info" command) and an HTML version
(the hypertext format used by the World Wide Web distributed
information initiative). You don't need to have LaTeX installed for
this. Note that the Python archive sites also carry the resulting
PostScript files, in case you have a PostScript printer but not LaTeX.
Configuration options and variables
-----------------------------------
Some special cases are handled by passing environment variables or
options to the configure script:
options to the configure script.
- The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if it finds it.
If you don't want this, or if this compiler is installed but broken on
your platform, pass the option --without-gcc. You can also pass
"CC=cc" (or whatever the name of the proper C compiler is) in the
environment, but the advantage of using --without-gcc is that this
option is remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck
option.
NOTE: if you rerun the configure script with different options, remove
all object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding.
- On SCO, a number of notes apply:
--with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if
it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is
installed but broken on your platform, pass the option
--without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the
name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the
advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is
remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck
option.
1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the
defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken.
Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard it's
conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined.
--prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the
Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib},
you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter
binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the
library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass
--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also
affects the default module search path (sys.path), when
Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option
prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the
prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient
than re-running the configure script if you change your mind
about the install prefix...
2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt
stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS
needed be set to:
--with-readline: You can use the GNU readline library to improve the
interactive user interface: this gives you line editing and
command history when calling python interactively. You need
to configure build the GNU readline library before running the
configure script. Its sources are not distributed with
Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror site, or from its
home site:
<URL:ftp://slc2.ins.cwru.edu/pub/dist/readline-2.0.tar.gz> (or
a higher version number -- using version 1.x is not
recommended).
LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i'
A GPL-free version was posted to comp.sources.misc in volume
31 and is widely available from FTP archive sites, e.g.
<URL:ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/.b/usenet/comp.sources.misc/
volume31/editline/part01.Z>
Pass the Python configure script the option
--with-readline=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute
pathname of the directory where you've built the readline
library. Some hints on building and using the readline
library are in the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ).
--with-thread: On SGI IRIX, and on Sun SOLARIS 2, you can use multiple
threads. To enable this, pass --with-thread. In the
Modules/Setup file, enable the thread module. (Threads aren't
enabled automatically because there are run-time penalties
when support for them is compiled in even if you don't use
them.)
--with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is
supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is
ftp'able from <URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z>.
This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl
library!) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY
is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on
IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style
shared libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
--with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported
on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent
Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a
combination of the GNU dynamic loading package
(<URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z>) and an
emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation
can be found at
<URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z>). To
enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the
configure passing it the option
--with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is
the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library.
(Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic
linking using shared libraries.) Support for this feature is
deprecated.
--with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative
versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library
(default the empty string) using the options
--with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g.
if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler
to use the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s.
These libraries are passed after all other libraries, the C
library last.
- If you want to install the binaries and the Python library somewhere
else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib}, you can pass the option
--prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter binary will be installed as
DIRECTORY/bin/python and the library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*.
If you pass --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also affects the
default module search path (sys.path), when Modules/config.c is
compiled. Passing make the option prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or
exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the prefix set at configuration time;
this may be more convenient than re-running the configure script if
you change your mind about the install prefix...
- You can use the GNU readline library to improve the interactive user
interface: this gives you line editing and command history when
calling python interactively. You need to configure build the GNU
readline library before running the configure script. Its sources are
not distributed with Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror
site, or from its home site:
<URL:ftp://slc2.ins.cwru.edu/pub/dist/readline-2.0.tar.gz> (or a
higher version number -- using version 1.x is not recommended).
A GPL-free version was posted to comp.sources.misc in volume 31 and is
widely available from FTP archive sites, e.g.
<URL:ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/.b/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume31/editline/part01.Z>
Pass the Python configure script the option --with-readline=DIRECTORY
where DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the directory where you've
built the readline library. Some hints on building and using the
readline library:
- If you have already built Python without readline and then
decide to add it, you have to rerun configure adding the
--with-readline flag, AND you have to remove the object file
Modules/myreadline.o (same if you go the other way)
- On SGI IRIX 5, you may have to add the following
to rldefs.h:
#ifndef sigmask
#define sigmask(sig) (1L << ((sig)-1))
#endif
- On most systems, you will have to add #include "rldefs.h" to the
top of several source files, and if you use the VPATH feature, you
will have to add dependencies of the form foo.o: foo.c to the
Makefile for several values of foo.
- The readline library requires use of the termcap library. A
known problem with this is that it contains entry points which
cause conflicts with the STDWIN and SGI GL libraries. The stdwin
conflict can be solved (and will be, in the next release of
stdwin) by adding a line saying '#define werase w_erase' to the
stdwin.h file (in the stdwin distribution, subdirectory H). The
GL conflict has been solved in the Python configure script by a
hack that forces use of the static version of the termcap library.
- Check the newsgroup gnu.bash.bugs for specific problems with the
readline library (I don't get this group here but I've been told
that it is the place for readline bugs.)
- On SGI IRIX, and on Sun SOLARIS 2, you can use multiple threads. To
enable this, pass --with-thread. In the Modules/Setup file, enable
the thread module. (Threads aren't enabled automatically because
there are run-time penalties when support for them is compiled in even
if you don't use them.)
- On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific
system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. To
enable these modules, you must edit the Modules/Setup file (or copy the
Setup.irix4 file to it).
- On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is supported by
the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is ftp'able from
<URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z>. This is enabled
(after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl library!) by passing
--with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of
the dl library. (Don't bother on IRIX 5, it already has dynamic
linking using SunOS style shared libraries.) Support for this feature
is deprecated.
- Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported on some other
systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent Symmetry (Dynix), and
Atari ST. This is done using a combination of the GNU dynamic loading
package (<URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z>) and an
emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation can be
found at <URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z>). To enable
this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the configure passing
it the option --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where
DL_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library. (Don't
bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic linking using shared
libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
- It is possible to specify alternative versions for the Math library
(default -lm) and the C library (default the empty string) using the
options --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g.
if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler to use
the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries
are passed after all other libraries, the C library last.
Extensions
----------
You can also build an "extended" interpreter, using modules that are
not contained in the Modules directory. Extensions are distributed as
a separate tar file (currently extensions.tar.Z). See the README file
there.
The Tk extension
----------------
Tk (the user interface component of John Ousterhout's Tcl language) is
also usable from Python. Since this requires that you first build and
install Tcl/Tk, the Tk interface is not enabled by default. It
requires Tcl 7.3 and Tk 3.6. For more info about Tk, including
pointers to the source, see John Ousterhout's home page at
<URL:http://playground.sun.com/~ouster/>.
To enable the Python/Tk interface, once you've built and installed
Tcl/Tk, all you need to do is edit two lines in Modules/Setup; search
for the string "Tk". Un-comment one (normally the first) of the lines
beginning with "#tkinter" and un-comment the line beginning with
"#TKPATH". (If you have installed Tcl/Tk in unusual places you will
have to edit the first line as well to fix the -I and -L options.)
See the Build Instructions above for more details.
There is little documentation. Begin with fetching the "Tk Lifesaver"
document, e.g. <URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/python/tkinter-doc.tar.gz> (a
gzipped tar file containing a PostScript file). There are demos in
the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories guido, matt and www.
Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
lives in Lib/tkinter/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "tkinter"
(lower case t) which lives in Modules/tkintermodule.c. Demos and
normal Tk applications only import the Python Tkinter module -- only
the latter uses the C tkinter module directly. In order to find the C
tkinter module, it must be compiled and linked into the Python
interpreter -- the tkinter line in the Setup file does this. In order
to find the Python Tkinter module, sys.path must be set correctly --
the TKPATH assignment in the Setup file takes care of this, but only
if you install Python properly ("make install libinstall"). (You can
also use dynamic loading for the C tkinter module, in which case you
must manually fix up sys.path or set $PYTHONPATH for the Python
Tkinter module.)
a separate tar file (currently extensions.tar.gz). See the README
file there.
Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature)
@ -319,13 +316,6 @@ doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local;
however this assumes that you only need to add modules.)
Troubleshooting
---------------
See section 3 of the FAQ (in subdirectory Misc of the distribution)
for hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
Building on non-UNIX systems
----------------------------
@ -356,6 +346,109 @@ fixes or suggestions, please let me know and I'll try to incorporate
them in the next release.
Miscellaneous issues
====================
Documentation
-------------
All documentation is provided in the subdirectory Doc in the form of
LaTeX files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut),
Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending (ext).
Especially the Library Reference is of immense value since much of
Python's power (including the built-in data types and functions!) is
described here.
To print the documentation from the LaTeX files, chdir into the Doc
subdirectory, type "make" (let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and
send the four resulting PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and
ext.ps) to the printer. See the README file there.
All documentation is also available on-line via the World-Wide Web
(WWW): <URL:http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/Python.html>. It can also be
downloaded separately from the ftp archives (see below) in Emacs INFO,
HTML or PostScript form -- see the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for more info.
Emacs mode
----------
There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file
Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by Tim Peters, who's no
longer on the net, it is now maintained by Barry Warsaw
<bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.com>.
Bug reports
-----------
Bugs are best reported to the comp.lang.python newsgroup or the Python
mailing list -- see the section "Newsgroup and mailing list" below.
Before posting, read the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) first to see if your
problem has already been answered!
Ftp access
----------
Python's "home ftp site" is ftp.cwi.nl, directory pub/python. See the
FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for a list of other ftp sites carrying the Python
distribution.
Newsgroup and mailing list
--------------------------
There are a newsgroup and a mailing list devoted to Python
programming, design and bugs. The newsgroup, comp.lang.python,
contains exactly the same messages as the mailing list. To subscribe
to the mailing list, send mail containing your real name and e-mail
address to "python-list-request@cwi.nl" (a real person reads these
messages, so no LISTPROC or Majordomo commands, please).
The Tk interface
----------------
Tk (the user interface component of John Ousterhout's Tcl language) is
also usable from Python. Since this requires that you first build and
install Tcl/Tk, the Tk interface is not enabled by default. It
requires Tcl 7.3 and Tk 3.6. It doesn't work yet with Tk 4.0-beta!
(Actually, the C code does, but the Tkinter.py module hasn't been
adapted yet.) For more info about Tk, including pointers to the
source, see John Ousterhout's home page at
<URL:http://playground.sun.com/~ouster/>.
To enable the Python/Tk interface, once you've built and installed
Tcl/Tk, all you need to do is edit two lines in Modules/Setup; search
for the string "tkinter". Un-comment one (normally the first) of the
lines beginning with "#tkinter" and un-comment the line beginning with
"#TKPATH". (If you have installed Tcl/Tk in unusual places you will
have to edit the first line as well to fix the -I and -L options.)
See the Build Instructions above for more details.
There is little documentation. Begin with fetching the "Tk Lifesaver"
document, e.g. <URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/python/tkinter-doc.tar.gz> (a
gzipped tar file containing a PostScript file). There are demos in
the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories guido, matt and www.
Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
lives in Lib/tkinter/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "tkinter"
(lower case t) which lives in Modules/tkintermodule.c. Demos and
normal Tk applications only import the Python Tkinter module -- only
the latter uses the C tkinter module directly. In order to find the C
tkinter module, it must be compiled and linked into the Python
interpreter -- the tkinter line in the Setup file does this. In order
to find the Python Tkinter module, sys.path must be set correctly --
the TKPATH assignment in the Setup file takes care of this, but only
if you install Python properly ("make install libinstall"). (You can
also use dynamic loading for the C tkinter module, in which case you
must manually fix up sys.path or set $PYTHONPATH for the Python
Tkinter module.)
Distribution structure
----------------------
@ -363,13 +456,14 @@ Most subdirectories have their own README file. Most files have
comments.
ChangeLog A raw list of changes since the first 1.0.0 BETA release
Contrib/ Interesting or useful Python code contributed by others
Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs
Doc/ Documentation (in LaTeX)
Doc/ Documentation (LaTeX sources)
Extensions/ Extension modules (distributed separately)
Grammar/ Input for the parser generator
Include/ Public header files
Lib/ Python library modules
Makefile Rules for building the distribution
Makefile.in Source from which config.status creates Makefile
Misc/ Miscellaneous files
Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules
Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types
@ -378,38 +472,24 @@ Python/ The "compiler" and interpreter
README The file you're reading now
Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python
acconfig.h Additional input for the autoheader program
config.h Configuration header (generated)
config.h.in Source from which config.status creates config.h
config.status status from last run of configure script (generated)
configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output)
configure.in Configuration specification (GNU autoconf input)
tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs (generated)
python The executable interpreter (generated)
The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by
the configuration and build processes:
Makefile Build rules
config.cache cache of configuration variables
config.h Configuration header
config.log log from last configure run
config.status status from last run of configure script
python The executable interpreter
tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs
Ftp access
----------
The latest Python source distribution can be ftp'ed from
<URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/python/>. See the INDEX or index.html file
for more information. You can also find PostScript of the main Python
documentation there, Macintosh and PC binaries, and the latest STDWIN
source distribution (in directory /pub/stdwin). oFr mirror sites, see
the list in the FAQ (Misc/FAQ this directory).
Mailing list and Newsgroup
--------------------------
There are a mailing list and a newsgroup devoted to Python
programming, design and bugs. The newsgroup, comp.lang.python,
contains exactly the same messages as the mailing list. To subscribe
to the mailing list, send mail containing your real name and e-mail
address in Internet form to "python-list-request@cwi.nl".
Author
------
Author's address
----------------
Guido van Rossum
CWI, dept. CST
@ -417,15 +497,17 @@ P.O. Box 94079
1090 GB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl
E-mail: guido@cwi.nl
Copyright Notice
----------------
Copyright notice
================
The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it
as long as you don't change or remove the copyright:
as long as you don't change or remove the copyright notice:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1991-1995 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands.
@ -446,10 +528,8 @@ FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT
OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Signature
---------
--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl>
<URL:http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html>
--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <mailto:guido@cwi.nl>
<http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/>

16
TODO
View file

@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
(-) many module should export their symbolic constants instead of
relying on a module written in Python
(-) change regexmodule.c to cooperate with other non-python users and
to export the symbolic constants
(-) save/restore sys.exc_{type,value,traceback} around except clauses.
(-) don't call class instance's __del__ more than once?????
(-) add "access" to posix? What name should it have?
(-) add facility to "freeze" lists and dictionaries?
(-) add WNOHANG to posix
(-) support lists in newgetargs()
(-) syntax errors detected during compilation should give line number