[texworks] New build system

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

On 2014-05-16 03:54, Atsuhito Kohda wrote:
> Hi Stefan and all, very very sorry for so late reply.

No problem, I know how it is. Anyway, there haven't been that many
(relevant) code changes recently, so it wasn't urgent :).

> I'm afraid it was well know issue but I noticed that Python
> plugin was not created with default setting.
> I'd like to know if there is any reason for this.

Yes, there is ;). At some point after the Python plugin was first
implemented, we were contacted by a guy who told us that the way we use
Python is inappropriate, against the python-y way of doing things, and
could possibly lead to (severe?) problems with some modules, existing
Python installations, etc. (these are no quotations, I'm just writing
off the top of my head). I tried to elicit his help or get pointers how
I could improve things, but failed. I myself know Python only from a
user's side, plus what I read on the internet while developing the
plugin, but I'm not a real python developer, so I don't know about all
the intricacies of "the python way".
In addition, at the time, I didn't know about any Python scripts for Tw
(other than some rudimentary test scripts). In fact, most of the scripts
were written in QtScript (which, admittedly, is the most portable as it
doesn't require any plugins). Besides that, a few lua scripts were
sticking around. But nothing python'y.

Therefore, it was decided that Python seems to cause more trouble than
it was worth, and the plugin was disabled by default. So, if you know of
some people who are experienced with Python and would like to help, just
send them my way :).

> (I build Python plugin package with modifying CMakeLists.txt)

Actually, there should be no need to _modify_ CMakeLists.txt. It should
be sufficient to add -DWITH_PYTHON=1 to your cmake command line (just as
you can set the build id using -DTW_BUILD_ID="MyBuildID"). That's (part
of) the beauty of CMake.

Best regards,
Stefan