Donn Cave <donn@oz.net>:

New README for BeOS R5.

This closes SourceForge patch #101779.

BeOS/README

@@ -5,14 +5,10 @@ version of Python for BeOS.
 
 What's Here?
 
-ar-fake - A shell script used by the build process to emulate a "real"
-          POSIX ar command; helps to build the Python shared library.
-
-dl_export.h - A header defining the evil magic declaration decorations
-              required for dynamic loading.
-
-linkcc - A shell script used by the build process to build the Python
-         shared library.
+ar-fake - A shell script that copies around .o files, for the as much
+              of the general effect of ar as we need but more fool-proof.
+              It also has an "so" command to build the shared library
+              that we actually install and use.
 
 linkmodule - A shell script used by the build process to build the
              shared library versions of the standard modules; you'll
@@ -29,50 +25,22 @@ README.readline-2.2 - Instructions for compiling/installing GNU readline 2.2.
                       interactively if you've got readline installed.  Highly
                       recommended.
 
-Compiling Your Own Version
-
-To compile your own version of Python 1.5.x for BeOS (with any luck,
-Python 1.5.2 and later will compile "out of the box" on BeOS), try this:
-
-1) Get the latest Python source code from ftp.python.org.
-
-2) Configure with:
-
-   ./configure --verbose --prefix=/boot/home/config --with-thread
-
-3) Copy Modules/Setup.in to Modules/Setup.
-
-4) Edit Modules/Setup to turn on all the modules you want built.
+To build,
 
-   Make sure you use _socket instead of socket for the name of the
-   socketmodule on BeOS (at least, until we get the new BONE networking).
+   1)  ./configure --prefix=/boot/home/config
 
-   If you want the modules to be built as shared libraries, instead of as
-   part of the Python shared library, be sure to uncomment the #*shared*
-   line.  I haven't done much testing with static linking, it's not as
-   interesting.
+   2)  cp Modules/Setup.in Modules/Setup
+       edit Modules/Setup
+          comment out grp and mmap, and pwd on 4.5 or earlier
+          uncomment any modules you want to include in python
+          (you can also add them later as shared libraries.)
+   3)  make
 
-   I've tried the following modules:
-
-   array audioop binascii cmath _codecs cPickle crypt cStringIO _curses
-   errno fcntl gdbm grp imageop _locale math md5 new operator parser
-   pcre posix pwd pyexpat readline regex rgbimg rotor select sha signal
-   _socket soundex _sre strop struct syslog termios time timing ucnhash
-   unicodedata zlib
-   
-   Note that some of these require extra libraries that aren't supplied 
-   with Python.  If you don't have the extra libs (you can probably get 
-   them from GeekGadgets), don't try to use these modules; they won't 
-   compile.
-
-5) Make:
-
-   make
-
-6) Test:
+Test:
 
    make test
 
+   [Chris Herborth writes:]
    test_popen2 will probably hang; it's deadlocked on a semaphore.  I should
    probably disable popen2 support... it uses fork(), and fork() doesn't mix
    with threads on BeOS.  In *THEORY* you could use it in a single-threaded
@@ -100,9 +68,6 @@ Python 1.5.2 and later will compile "out of the box" on BeOS), try this:
 
    test test_fork1 skipped -- can't mix os.fork with  threads on BeOS
 
-   test test_re failed -- Writing: '=== Failed incorrectly', expected: 
-                          "('abc', 'abc', 0, 'fou"
-
    test test_select crashed -- select.error : (-2147459072, 'Bad file
                                descriptor')
 
@@ -111,13 +76,19 @@ Python 1.5.2 and later will compile "out of the box" on BeOS), try this:
    These are all due to either partial support for certain things (like
    sockets), or valid differences between systems.
 
-   That test_re failure is a little worrysome though.
+   test test_pickle crashed.  This is apparently a serious problem,
+                     "complex" number objects reconstructed from a
+                     pickle don't compare equal to their ancestors.
+                     But it happens on BeOS PPC only, not Intel.
 
-7) Install:
+Install:
 
    make install
 
-8) Enjoy!
+Enjoy!
 
 - Chris Herborth (chrish@pobox.com)
   July 21, 2000
+
+- Donn Cave (donn@oz.net)
+  October 4, 2000