[webkit-dev] Python on the Tiger build bot

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On May 7, 2010, at 9:10 PM, Eric Seidel wrote:

> 2.  Additionally, Tiger seems mostly ignored by WebKit (note examples
> like https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38743).  No one develops
> on Tiger to my knowledge (note mjs last night in #webkit noting how he
> had no access to a Tiger machine, I certainly don't have access to
> one).

I do have access to one at work, just not at home (I can only fit so  
many OS partitions on one laptop.)

>
> I'm happy to add a brief note to the tools.html page noting that
> python 2.5 is required and linking to a page.
>
> Our scripts already print:
> webkitpy.python24.versioning: [WARNING] WebKit Python scripts do not
> support your current Python version (2.4.6).  The minimum supported
> version is 2.5.
>
> I'm happy to augment that warning to provide a download URL.
>
> In short, I don't think Tiger (which appears legacy and
> maintenance-mode only at this point) should hold hostage our script
> development on all platforms.  We should simply update the bot and be
> done with things. :)

My feeling about requiring a higher Python version for Tiger remains  
this:

"I'd prefer that we provide an easy means to do the install of Python  
2.6 (ideally a single script you can run, and ideally without  
affecting the system copy), rather than making every Tiger developer  
figure it out on their own."
http://www.mail-archive.com/webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org/msg10331.html

For those of us who still need to support Tiger, it would be a huge  
hassle to have to figure out how to update Python manually to even run  
the layout tests. The fact that it's not a primary development  
platform doesn't mean that it's ok to add stumbling blocks to the  
development process. In fact, it kinda makes it less ok, because then  
it takes more work to shift gears when fixing a Tiger-specific bug.

At minimum, there should be instructions here, and ideally the install  
should be one step:
http://webkit.org/building/tools.html

I understand that Google is not interested in supporting Tiger, but  
please be kind to those of us who do have to support it (for now  
anyway).

Regards,
Maciej