<story><title>Python Wheels Crosses 90%</title><url>https://pythonwheels.com/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>haberman</author><text>Today I spent at least an hour fighting with Python packaging. The more I think about it, the more I feel that self-contained static binaries are the way to go. Trying to load source files from all over the filesystem at runtime is hell. Or at least it&amp;#x27;s hell to debug when it goes wrong.&lt;p&gt;I would love to see a move towards &amp;quot;static&amp;quot; binaries that package everything together into a single, self-contained unit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gorgoiler</author><text>In the past week my coding colleague (whose age is only just into double digits) and I have had to:&lt;p&gt;* insert lines of code into asciidoctor Ruby to debug how the command line interface differs from the library interface;&lt;p&gt;* read through Raspberry Pi SenseHat code to figure out that the drivers won’t load via SSH (you have to plug in an HDMI cable!);&lt;p&gt;* rummage through Python’s PY Sequence List to answer the question “what kind of sort does Python actually use?”.&lt;p&gt;The problem with shipping binaries is it lowers the standard for being able to build from source.&lt;p&gt;If a package is easier to ship as a binary because the source is hard to distribute reliably, we give up hope of end users being able to modify and build their own versions.&lt;p&gt;This is obviously bad for freedom.  It’s also hard for debugging and &lt;i&gt;learning&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Python Wheels Crosses 90%</title><url>https://pythonwheels.com/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>haberman</author><text>Today I spent at least an hour fighting with Python packaging. The more I think about it, the more I feel that self-contained static binaries are the way to go. Trying to load source files from all over the filesystem at runtime is hell. Or at least it&amp;#x27;s hell to debug when it goes wrong.&lt;p&gt;I would love to see a move towards &amp;quot;static&amp;quot; binaries that package everything together into a single, self-contained unit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>m4rtink</author><text>Its fun and games until you find out one of the things you bundled into your static binary has a remote code execution CVE that is being actively exploited in the wild. Good luck tracking down all the artifacts and making sure they are rebuild with the patched version - till the time next CVE hits and you can do it all again for every static binary bundling the affected component.</text></comment>