Re: [gpsd-dev] ✘3.18 release soon

[Fred Wright]

On Tue, 2 Oct 2018, Gary E. Miller wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Oct 2018 16:31:08 -0700 (PDT)
> Fred Wright <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > > I hacked a fix for xgps and xgpsspeed version issues.  And added
> > > version checks to cgps.  A real fix would require making the Python
> > > client library as smart as the C client library.
> > >
> > > Check it out.
> >
> > I'm not convinced that something which should be completely normal
> > merits warnings, but at least it works now.
>
> Considering how many problems gpsd users have with mixed versions I
> do not consider it perfectly normal.
>
> But I do agree the format of the message is sub-optimal.  Maybe
> a popup or some such.
>
>
> > > Along the way, I see there is no way for the C clients to see the
> > > expected API versions.  Something else to fix in 3.19~dev.
> > >
> > > Any other release blockers?
> >
> > Currently the "ubxtool -V" in python-versions makes pyserial a
> > mandatory dependency,
>
> Works for me:
>
>    # ./ubxtool -V
>    ubxtool: Version 3.18
>
> Tested on Python 2.7 and 3.6.
>
> Something seriously different with your Python and the way it
> imports things.  I assume this is another macOS defect?

No, it just happens when pyserial isn't installed.  Pyserial isn't a 
standard Python library, as noted in the comment related to complaining 
about its absence.  Requiring pyserial just to make "scons check" work is 
undesirable.

My WIP fix is to defer complaining about its absence until the program 
actually needs to open a serial port, which is not always the case.

Fred Wright