Re: [Visualpython-users] Help with Linux?

Aaron Mavrinac has volunteered to help with Linux but comments about
Ubuntu, "This I can't help with, as I don't use Ubuntu. I do maintain
an up-to-date ebuild for Gentoo/Funtoo in my unofficial overlay."

Isn't there a knowledgeable Ubuntu user in the VPython community who
could collaborate with Aaron on this? It now seems clear that what is
needed is really just 1) testing VPython on new Ubuntu releases, to
catch problems such as happened recently with a library function no
longer working, and 2) preparing up-to-date packages to be hosted at
vpython.org, because Ubuntu can be a couple years behind VPython
developments (it's a secondary issue to pester Ubuntu to put "our"
package in "their" distribution).

Bruce Sherwood

On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 7:57 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> If you have significant experience with Linux, please consider helping
> maintain the Linux version of VPython.
>
> It has been some years since a real Linux expert worked with VPython;
> that was Jonathan Brandmeyer. Some expertise is needed, because with
> every new release of Ubuntu, presumably the most popular Linux
> distribution, there's a pretty high probability that something will go
> wrong, as was the case with the function Gdk::GL::get_proc_address
> breaking. Moreover, the Ubuntu package python-visual is typically far
> behind the current version of Visual. The latest version of Ubuntu
> offers a python-visual package that is version 5.12, released in
> August 2009, over two years ago (the current version is 5.72).
>
> I hope very much that one or more Linux VPython users will step
> forward and take responsibility for some aspects of maintaining Visual
> on Linux. Here are the main issues that I see as needing ongoing
> attention:
>
> * Improve the build machinery. Brandmeyer made a very important
> contribution in creating the autoconfigure machinery that made it
> possible to build on diverse Linuxes. However, this machinery is
> showing its age. For example, it doesn't deal with 64-bit machines,
> and it's aimed at site-packages rather than the now-favored
> dist-packages. Moreover, the autoconfigure machinery is quite complex
> and not easy to modify. Probably someone(s) should experiment with
> using distutils instead of autoconfig for building Visual.
>
> * Get involved with the process that leads to a python-visual package
> for Ubuntu. I know nothing about this process, but it's clearly not
> working. It would seem that there is little or no testing of the
> package, and as noted above the package is woefully out of date. The
> Ubuntu/Debian package should be built and tested by users of VPython
> and offered to those who assemble the next version of the Linux
> distribution.
>
> I'm guessing that for someone who knows Linux well, these tasks would
> not be difficult, but they need to be done.
>
> Bruce Sherwood