[Twisted-Python] System Plugings

[Moshe Zadka]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Glyph Lefkowitz <glyph at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:


> I think you have a good criticism there, but we need to have a method which
> does platform-specific path additions

Yes.
How about a global configuration file?
The "system" parameters can be in twisted.config, which will be a sane
default for installation, contain just variable assignment, and expected
to be rewritten in any installer?

> , since most platforms are vastly
> different in their management of paths.

Hence my limitation for "Debian-specific". 
I note I do not want to put such things in the .diff.gz. Ideally,
I'd like the .diff.gz to be empty.

> Right now, I'm thinking I want to have
> /User/%s/Applications/Twisted.app/Contents/Plugins as my plugin directory...
> ^_^

Cool ;-)

> <rant> I really hate the unix installation scheme.

No, what you hate is that UNIX sucks, not the standards. If UNIX could
have a "private view of the filesystem", there'd be no /home, no dot-files
(just change the /etc/whatever in "your" filesystem) and dead easy package
management.
 
>  The fact that Windows is
> worse isn't an excuse.

"Windows' biggest crime is that they made UNIX look like a good operating
system. UNIX's biggest crime is that it made Windows look user-friendly"
-- Me

> Debian does a great job of covering for some really
> basic deficiencies in it, but unless you're on a system with a package manager
> there's no way to tell where a file came from.

Yep. You should read DJB's stuff.

> I want Twisted to be a self-contained
> directory on all systems by default, and have specific policy settings only on
> those systems where an "installer" or package management system is
> advantageous. </rant>

You won't here a peep from me about such policy. Mostly because the only
system I care about falls within your exception ;-)

> I do think Twisted should be integrated into the installation culture wherever
> it goes.  However, /usr/share/twisted/plugins doesn't necessarily make sense
> for system-wide installs even on debian.  (Python's maintainer flaunts policy,
> why shouldn't we? ^_^)  Probably plugins will have to live under site-python,
> in order that appropriate .pyc and .so files may be created (thanks to the
> ever-changing bytecode specification).

Living under site-python won't help that. Trust me on that -- it will only
make things worse for no good use. (I've sat on the debian-python list
for that information. I had looong discussions with co-developers.)

> The strategy that makes the most sense to me right now is just a
> twisted/python/path.py which has a big if-tree that adds paths depending on 
> the
> platform you're using.  That seems icky though, so I'm open to better
> suggestions.

Well, I can assure you that if that happens, debian/rules first job will
be to rewrite twisted/python/path.py into one line ;-)
Which is why I want it to be one line in the first place ;-)
The installer-builder will rewrite it anyway, and the developer won't mind
turning on an environment variable.

Also see the way mailman handles configuration.
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