Re: polygon dependency

I agree. Typically, whenever an RPM is installed with Yum, it automatically installs all necessary dependencies, or at least enough so that the program will run. When I install python-visual after a clean install, I need to manually install gtkglextmm-devel, libglademm24-devel, and fonttools through yum, then Polygon and TTFQuery through easy_install. At this point I can run vpython with no import errors.  Even then, if I want 3D fonts, I have to find and package the Microsoft fonts from source or I get the error "there's something wrong with the font times". 

It would be nice if the RPM listed the development libraries required as dependencies to that yum could install them automatically. Additionally, if there could be some sort of try:  except ImportError: around the Polygon and TTFQuery imports, or only attempt to import them when the 3D fonts are requested, with some sort of error message like "Polygon and TTFQuery modules are required for 3D rendering of text" of they are not found. 

The problem is, as Thomas points out, that Fedora requires that all packages be completely free and open source, so unless all dependencies meet that criteria vpython won't run as currently implemented, but with a few tweaks (the try statement I mentioned earlier) it could run without problem unless 3D fonts are required. A possibility might be to add a background routine to install Polygon and TTFQuery on first run with 3D fonts in a way that is hidden from the user, similar to what Sage-math does. 

Good luck!  I really enjoy vpython's simplicity. In fact, we are going to use it this summer to teach middle schoolers the basics of programming and science in a way that gives immediate feedback. The biggest problem I have is installation on linux (it's a breeze on Mac), though that's probably only a small population of the users, so I understand the slower development. 

Seth Morton

On Mar 21, 2011, at 4:58 PM, Thomas Spura <tomspur-rxtnV0ftBwyoClj4AeEUq9i2O/[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi list,
> 
> is it possible to drop the polygon dependency somehow (or at least make
> it optionally).
> 
> I just tried to package it for fedora and noticed the dependency to
> gpc, which is non-free:
> https://fedorahosted.org/fpc/ticket/74
> 
> When that can't be resolved by polygon upstream (and I bet it can't,
> because they would be forced to rewrite the gpc library somehow),
> vpython will never work on fedora, because polygon can't be imported...
> 
> Greetings,
>   Thomas
> 
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