Python 3.8 - alpha release

If I back up Python 3.8 to my NAS (LanMan98 or LanManFS SMB) it chokes at

!Python3.Lib.test.testtar/tar./
!Python3.Lib.test.testtar/tar././

because ‘/’ translates as dot, and a single dot is not a valid file or directory in the output. Are these directories actually needed?

I think it’s just test data for the tests (which I don’t think work on RISC OS at the moment for other reasons) I would say not.

I’ve put another set of packages up for python and pip. I’ve not got around to pygame yet.

As I have limited time for testing I’d appreciate any feedback, bugs comments etc.

Hi Chris,

I assume you mean the 12th Nov packages as I installed the latest Python38 today via Packman and installed/upgraded pip as well.

I have been using Sargasso and YTPlay 3.00RC1 to search and play a number of YouTuibe videos all OK today.

I just have to be careful not to have Python27 being seen or the older standalone YTSearch/youtube_dl apps as it stops Python38 working correctly.

Anyway thanks for all your efforts.

Doug

@Doug
Your answer was not directly for me but good to read that YTPlay3 is working.
I’m a bit busy with “real live” but have start any improvements (for me)… e.g. downlad audio only.

Thank you for the updates – 3.8.5-4, pip 20.0.2-3 and RISC OS 5.29 15-Nov-20

Errors in relation to installing numpy via pip

*python3 -m pip install numpy
Collecting numpy
  Downloading numpy-1.19.4.zip (7.3 MB)
     |                                | 10 kB 341 kB/s eta 0:00:22     |                                | 20 kB 512 kB/s eta 0:00:15     |                                | 30 kB 512 kB/s eta 0:00:15 <- CUT -> 7.3 MB 538 kB/s eta 0:00:01     |############################### | 7.3 MB 538 kB/s eta 0:00:01     |############################### | 7.3 MB 538 kB/s eta 0:00:01     |############################### | 7.3 MB 538 kB/s eta 0:00:01     |############################### | 7.3 MB 538 kB/s eta 0:00:01     |################################| 7.3 MB 538 kB/s 
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.Bin.python38' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-0xhi0zf3.numpy.setup/py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-0xhi0zf3.numpy.setup/py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-0xhi0zf3.numpy.pip-egg-info'
         cwd: SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-0xhi0zf3.numpy
    Complete output (0 lines):
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_tracker/py", line 42, in update_env_context_manager
    yield
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_tracker/py", line 66, in get_requirement_tracker
    yield tracker
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.commands.install/py", line 331, in run
    resolver.resolve(requirement_set)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.legacy_resolve/py", line 177, in resolve
    discovered_reqs.extend(self._resolve_one(requirement_set, req))
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.legacy_resolve/py", line 333, in _resolve_one
    abstract_dist = self._get_abstract_dist_for(req_to_install)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.legacy_resolve/py", line 282, in _get_abstract_dist_for
    abstract_dist = self.preparer.prepare_linked_requirement(req)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.operations.prepare/py", line 520, in prepare_linked_requirement
    abstract_dist = _get_prepared_distribution(
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.operations.prepare/py", line 95, in _get_prepared_distribution
    abstract_dist.prepare_distribution_metadata(finder, build_isolation)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.distributions.sdist/py", line 40, in prepare_distribution_metadata
    self.req.prepare_metadata()
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_install/py", line 566, in prepare_metadata
    self.metadata_directory = self._generate_metadata()
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_install/py", line 540, in _generate_metadata
    return generate_metadata_legacy(
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.operations.build.metadata_legacy/py", line 115, in generate_metadata
    call_subprocess(
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.utils.subprocess/py", line 243, in call_subprocess
    raise InstallationError(exc_msg)
pip._internal.exceptions.InstallationError: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.cli.base_command/py", line 186, in _main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.commands.install/py", line 450, in run
    wheel_cache.cleanup()
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.python38.lib.contextlib", line 131, in __exit__
    self.gen.throw(type, value, traceback)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_tracker/py", line 66, in get_requirement_tracker
    yield tracker
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._vendor.contextlib2/py", line 479, in __exit__
    _reraise_with_existing_context(exc_details)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._vendor.contextlib2/py", line 340, in _reraise_with_existing_context
    raise exc_details[1]
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._vendor.contextlib2/py", line 468, in __exit__
    if cb(*exc_details):
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._vendor.contextlib2/py", line 396, in _exit_wrapper
    return cm_exit(cm, *exc_details)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.python38.lib.contextlib", line 131, in __exit__
    self.gen.throw(type, value, traceback)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!BOOT.Resources.!PythonSite.Python38.Site-Packages.pip._internal.req.req_tracker/py", line 47, in update_env_context_manager
    del target[name]
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.python38.lib.os", line 705, in __delitem__
    self.unsetenv(encodedkey)
  File "SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.python38.lib.os", line 782, in _riscos_unsetenv
    swi.swi('OS_SetVarVal','s0iii',var,-1,0,4)
TypeError: argument must be str, not bytes

Errors in relation to installing numpy via pip

Only pure python modules will install via pip.

Only pure python modules will install via pip.

Yes. I am working on getting compiled modules to work but it’s not there yet. Various things aren’t as pip expects them – one big one is the c files need to be “c.foo” (ie. ‘foo’ in a directory ‘c’) which is rather unique to RISC OS.

From that error report it looks like there unsetenv is getting upset being given ‘bytes’ too, so I had best look at that. I /thought/ I’d fixed it already but evidently not it seems :)

You should be able to use "pip38 … " rather than python3 -m pip …" now too. There is a bug in the pip38 script that means it often doesn’t work the first time around. I’ve already fixed that here for the next version.

Thank you for the update, quick test of Python-38 (3.8.5-5), Python-Core (0.0.1-1), Python-38-pip (20.0.2-4)

*python3 -m pip install youtube-search-python
Collecting youtube-search-python
  Downloading youtube_search_python-1.3.2-py3-none-any.whl (11 kB)
Installing collected packages: youtube-search-python
Successfully installed youtube-search-python-1-3-2
*pip38 install youtube-dl 
Collecting youtube-dl
  Downloading youtube_dl-2020.11.29-py2.py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)

Installing collected packages: youtube-dl
Successfully installed youtube-dl-2020-11-29

Looks great!

I removed all of the old packages first, including renaming !PythonSite, to complete the removal process. The only error encountered so far was whilst installing Python-38 “File <Python3$Dir>!Sprites not found”.

For those who haven’t noticed yet, Python is now on the “main” package servers. Hopefully those who were running the beta ones will be able to upgrade without too much pain.

I have removed them from my test server (http://packages.lessthan3.org.uk/pkg/testing), but the server will remain for testing of new packages. If you want to get them when they appear then keep it your sources, if you want to wait until they get “released” then remove or disable my server from PackMan.

Thank you to all the alpha and beta testers and those who have given me feedback and encouragement!

We now get a mention here https://www.python.org/download/other/

Fantastic :-D

There was a question about if Python can control also the GPIO.

There was a question about if Python can control also the GPIO.

I’m working on it…

Python-38-pygame now on the test server. There are some Obey files in examples.RISCOS to run the examples that will run on RISC OS.

I notice that the Python3 sprite doesn’t show on hi-res screens. It’s fine at 1680 × 1040 on one machine but absent at 2560 × 1440 on the other – both ARMX6/Wandboards. I assume there’s a hi-res sprite version missing.

At this afternoon’s MUG meeting two people, guided by a third person, who had been there and done that, tried to install Python3 using Packman.
Person A, who already had Python3 installed and working , started by uninstalling all Python related files. He then tried to install Python3 but failed to do so. The error meessage was:-
“Failed to install/remove package when downloading. url malformed”
Person B who did not have a previous install of Python successfully installed the package – But after an uninstall got the same error as person A.
here is th log file:-
Time Code Description
18:28:53 3000a Started processing changes to packages
18:28:53 3002e Updating component paths
18:28:53 30031 Component paths updated
18:28:53 3000b Preprocessing package ‘LibFFI6’ version ‘3.2.1-2’
18:28:53 3004d Package environment ‘arm’ with OS dependency ‘’
18:28:53 3000c Using cached version of package ’LibFFI6’
18:28:53 3000b Preprocessing package ‘Python-38’ version ‘3.8.5-5’
18:28:53 3004d Package environment ‘any’ with OS dependency ‘’
18:28:54 3000c Using cached version of package ’Python-38’
18:28:54 3000b Preprocessing package ‘Python-Core’ version ‘0.0.1-1’
18:28:54 3004d Package environment ‘any’ with OS dependency ‘’
18:28:54 3000c Using cached version of package ’Python-Core’
18:28:54 3000b Preprocessing package ‘Python3’ version ‘3.8.5-2’
18:28:54 3004d Package environment ‘unset’ with OS dependency ‘’
18:28:54 3000d Not using cached version of package ’Python3’ due to ‘missing cache file for package ()’
18:28:54 3000e Downloading package ‘Python3’ from ‘’
18:28:54 00004 Failed to download package ’Python3’, error: malformed

Python seems to be something of a minefield in general. I’ve just spent some hours fixing a problem on Ubuntu 20.04 where PyQt5 claimed to be installed but couldn’t be found by apps that needed it.

A forced reinstallation of PyQt5 fixed it, but it took a long time to find the solution (and try out some non-solutions along the way).

“Failed to install/remove package when downloading. url malformed”

Check that the latest version of PackMan (0.9.5) is being used.

Also clear the cache (Advanced→Cache) and then ‘Update Lists’.

Also clear the cache (Advanced→Cache) and then ‘Update Lists’.

There was a lot of stuff in it but cleared ok.

Check that the latest version of PackMan (0.9.5) is being used.

This one not so good.
Info showed my Packman was a version # 0.9.5 beta (13 Apr 2020)
Packman list shows version # 0.9.5.1 – I cannot see a date.
I tried to install the newer version of PackMan but it failed after downloading.
while trying to install Python !!!! (same invalid url message)
Now either Python has become part of PackMan or my PackMan is seriously screwed.
Attempts to view the log now result in :-
“invalid object id 0×409130 … tell the author.”
The Verify command causes a loop with “invalid object id 0×409130 … tell the author.”
and requires alt-break to stop PackMan.

In normal times I will have lost the will to live by now, but
hey what else is there to help pass the time?
So I am thinnking of trying to remove all traces of PackMan and the reinstalling it.
But I would like to be able to restore the list of packages that is currently managing.

| | 10 kB 341 kB/s eta 0:00:22 | …..
command: ’SCSI::HardDisc0.$.Apps.Development.Python3.!Python3.Bin.pyt ……

Andrew would you please edit your post and shorten the above two lines
as I believe they are responsible for the very wide window that NetSurf is using
for this forum page. It makes it difficult to find the “Save Reply” button
Thanks

@ Chris Johns

We now get a mention here https://www.python.org/download/other/

Nice job sir! :)

Packman list shows version # 0.9.5.1 – I cannot see a date.

There is no such version as 0.9.5.1. The version available in PackMan is 0.9.5-1. The ‘-1’ is the package version.
Did you do an ‘Update Lists’ first. I can’t see how it managed to let you install a new version as there isn’t one. Unless you have more than one copy of PackMan installed and one is an older version.

Another thing to check is the certificate bundle up to date. It’s the CaCertificates (1.00-3) package in PackMan. Also for the certicates to work the date and time on the machine must be correct.

Andrew would you please edit your post and shorten the above two lines
as I believe they are responsible for the very wide window that NetSurf i

A horizontal scroll bar appears on other RISC OS browsers.

A horizontal scroll bar appears on other RISC OS browsers.

A horizontal scroll bar appears on other browsers full stop.

A horizontal scroll bar appears on other browsers full stop.

Scrolling isn’t the problem. NetSurf has a horizontal scroll bar.
I guess it is not a problem for other browsers but I always view the forum posts using RISC OS.
The problem here is that NetSurf wraps text to the longest line length in
the current page of the forum.
Quoted text is not wrapped, so as the line in the listing above contains over 500 characters,
NetSurf which wraps normal paragraph text is no longer able to do so.
This makes for very long lines of text with small font size, or
having to use the scroll to read a post if I zoom in.

I should probably raise it as a bug in the NetSurf system.