Whence Python?

[Rahul Sundaram]

Mike McCarty wrote:
> Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>> Mike McCarty wrote:
>>
>>> I was reading http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD
>>> and I wonder, why is a rewrite in Python perceived to be
>>> an advantage to this tool? ISTM to be a silly waste of
>>> time.
>>
>>
>> You seem to be confused. This tool is already in python and has been 
>> that way for a long time.
> 
> I know that I always seem confused to you, Rahul.
> 
> You did not answer my question as asked. You might try reading
> it again, and answering it, or deferring to those who can
> if you do not know the answer.

The question appears to assume already that this tool is not under 
python already (which I why I said you appear to be confused) and 
fedora-live cd list would have been more appropriate to ask this 
question anyway. I would suggest doing so for a more detailed answer 
perhaps.

> Yes, I saw on the web page that that part of the project is
> already done. I supposed that since I had already stated that
> I had read the page, you would presume that I was truthful,
> and observant enough to notice that.

A part of was written in python and the rest in in shell script as it 
was originally. Install it and check it out. Should be very easy to see 
that if you are using anything more recent than Fedora Core 2 now.

The original tool that was based on OLPC build tools was written as 
sheel scripts and wasn't meant to be published. It was used for a early 
release for Fedora Core 6.

Red Hat uses python heavily in many of its tools so there is developer 
comfort and preexisting bindings for most of the tools in Fedora.

The partial rewrite in python provides the ability to install to hard 
disk, integration with  yum API (python) kickstart (via pykickstart) and 
Anaconda (which is PyGTK).

Rahul