[GRASS-dev] Handling of Python scripts on MS Windows

[Sören Gebbert]

Hi Markus,

2014-05-07 21:50 GMT+02:00 Markus Metz <markus.metz.giswork at gmail.com>:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Glynn Clements
> <glynn at gclements.plus.com> wrote:
>>
>> Markus Metz wrote:
>>
>>> >> > By all means provide fall-backs, workarounds, alternatives, or
>>> >> > whatever, but anything which tries to make such things mandatory is
>>> >> > going to get reverted. Again.
>>> >>
>>> >> really nice attitude ;-) Martin
>>> >
>>> > At least I'm not saying "you ARE going to use our version of Python,
>>> > whether you like it or not".
>>>
>>> People installing GRASS want to use GRASS. They want GRASS to work out
>>> of the box. They can use any Python version they want, as long as
>>> WinGRASS uses its embedded Python version. Users will not notice it.
>>
>> You're assuming that users have a free choice as to what they install.
>
> Oh, you say users should not have a free choice of what they install?
> Please explain this to MS Windows users who want to give GRASS a try.

I don't think that Glynn was trying to say that.

>
> On MS Windows, users do have a free choice of what they install. Third
> party software packages are on MS Windows completely independent of
> each other. If you don't like this, you have to change the MS Windows
> world first, then GRASS.
>
> On MS Windows, GRASS and a system-wide Python installation are third
> party software packages that are completely independent of each other.

In my Institute the user do not have the free choice of what they
can install on their windows machines.
There are guidelines what software and version is allowed to be
installed. There are Institution specific software repositories that
must be used.
All software must be installed by the system administrator, user do
not have any permissions
to do this them self. This is for security and maintenance reasons.

I think this is very common in companies and public institutions. I
know several companies with much more restrictive guideline (no
internet connection, USB sticks not allowed, ...). So you can't expect
that
user have a free choice.

>
> Anything but using GRASS_PYTHON to call Python scripts will cause
> trouble on MS WIndows. See this thread.
>
>> Some sites actually have policies about what software they'll allow on
>> their systems.
>
> How arrogant. Third party software packages are on MS Windows
> completely independent of each other.

This sounds like another misunderstanding. :)

Best regards
Soeren

>
> As soon as I have enough time to do this, I will implement the
> GRASS_PYTHON mechanism. GRASS_PYTHON can always be set to the
> system-wide .py file association, whatever that will be, some
> incompatible/incomplete Python version, some .bat script (which could
> work BTW), a text editor, or some general developer editor or SDK such
> as the one from MS .
>
> Markus M
> _______________________________________________
> grass-dev mailing list
> grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-dev