python: Remove Python bindings

* README: Update.
* configure.ac: Remove checks, variables and file generations related to
the Python bindings. Remove python from available_languages and
default_languages.
* lang/Makefile.am (DIST_SUBDIRS): Remove python.
* lang/python: Remove.
* m4/ax_pkg_swig.m4, m4/ax_python_devel.m4, m4/python.m4: Remove.
--

The Python bindings have been moved to a separate Git repository:
gpgmepy.

GnuPG-bug-id: 7262

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 135 deletions

diff --git a/lang/python/doc/src/maintenance-mode.org b/lang/python/doc/src/maintenance-mode.org
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b4e0fca..00000000
--- a/lang/python/doc/src/maintenance-mode.org
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,135 +0,0 @@
-# -*- mode: org -*-
-#+TITLE: Maintenance Mode
-#+AUTHOR: Ben McGinnes
-#+LATEX_COMPILER: xelatex
-#+LATEX_CLASS: article
-#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [12pt]
-#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xltxtra}
-#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
-#+LATEX_HEADER: \setmainfont[Ligatures={Common}]{Times New Roman}
-#+LATEX_HEADER: \author{Ben McGinnes <[email protected]>}
-
-
-* Maintenance Mode from 2019
-  :PROPERTIES:
-  :CUSTOM_ID: maintenance-mode
-  :END:
-
-| Version:        | 0.0.1                                    |
-| GPGME Version:  | 1.13.0                                   |
-| Author:         | Ben McGinnes <[email protected]>             |
-| Author GPG Key: | DB4724E6FA4286C92B4E55C4321E4E2373590E5D |
-| Language:       | Australian English, British English      |
-| xml:lang:       | en-AU, en-GB, en                         |
-
-From the beginning of 2019 the Python bindings to GPGME will enter
-maintenance mode, meaning that new features will not be added and only
-bug fixes and security fixes will be made.  This also means that
-documentation beyond that existing at the end of 2018 will not be
-developed further except to correct errors.
-
-Though use of these bindings appears to have been quite well received,
-there has been no indication of what demand there is, if any for
-either financial backing of the current Python bindings development or
-support contracts with g10code GmbH citing the necessity of including
-the bindings.
-
-
-** Maintainer from 2019 onward
-   :PROPERTIES:
-   :CUSTOM_ID: maintenance-mode-bm
-   :END:
-
-How does this affect the position of GnuPG Python Bindings Maintainer?
-
-Well, I will remain as maintainer of the bindings; but without funding
-for that position, the amount of time I will be able to dedicate
-solely to this task will be limited and reduced to volunteered time.
-As with all volunteered time and effort in free software projects,
-this will be subject to numerous external imperatives.
-
-
-** Using the Python Bindings from 2019 and beyond
-   :PROPERTIES:
-   :CUSTOM_ID: maintenance-mode-blade-runner
-   :END:
-
-For most, if not all, Python developers using these bindings; they
-will continue to “just work” the same as they always have.  Expansions
-of GPGME itself are usually handled by SWIG with the existing code and
-thus bindings are generated properly when the bindings are installed
-alongside GPGME and when the latter is built from source.
-
-In the rare circumstances where that is not enough to address some new
-addition to GPGME, then that is a bug and thus subject to the
-maintenance mode provisions (i.e. it will be fixed following a bug
-report being raised and your humble author will need to remember where
-the timesheet template was filed, depending on how many years off such
-an event is).
-
-All the GPGME functionality will continue to be accessible via the
-lower level, dynamically generated methods which match the GPGME C
-documentation.  While the more intuitively Pythonic higher level layer
-already covers the vast majority of functionality people require with
-key generation, signatures, certifications (key signing), encryption,
-decryption, verification, validation, trust levels and so on.
-
-Any wanted features lacking in the Python bindings are usually lacking
-because they are missing from GPGME itself (e.g. revoking keys via the
-API) and in such cases they are usually deliberately excluded.  More
-discussion of these issues can be found in the archives of the
-[[https://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-devel][gnupg-devel mailing list]].
-
-Any features existing in the dynamically generated layer for which
-people want a specific, higher level function included to make it more
-Pythonic (e.g. to avoid needing to learn or memorise cryptographic
-mode values or GnuPG status code numbers), would be a feature request
-and /not/ a bug.
-
-It is still worthwhile requesting it, but the addition of such a
-feature would not be guaranteed and provided on a purely volunteer
-basis.  Expediting such a request would require funding that request.
-
-Those with a commercial interest in expediting such a feature request
-already know how to [[https://gnupg.org/cgi-bin/procdonate.cgi?mode=preset][expedite it]] (use the message field to state what
-feature is being requested).
-
-
-** Documentation formats
-   :PROPERTIES:
-   :CUSTOM_ID: docs
-   :END:
-
-The documentation has been written in Org mode for GNU Emacs, with
-both Texinfo and reStructuredText formats generated from that.  The
-Texinfo files are intended for use with the rest of the GnuPG
-documentation; while the reStructuredText files are intended for use
-with Docutils and Sphinx, as with other Python projects.
-
-
-*** Cautionary Notes regarding Sphinx and EPUB
-    :PROPERTIES:
-    :CUSTOM_ID: sphinx-made-epubs-suck
-    :END:
-
-Though Python's Docutils in conjunction with Sphinx is capable of
-generating some very useful HTML sites, as proven by [[https://readthedocs.org/][Read the Docs]] and
-the [[https://docs.python.org/][Python documentation]], there are a number of output formats it does
-not handle well.  At the top of the list of things it manages to break
-so atrociously as to be embarassing is the [[http://idpf.org/epub][EPUB 3]] format.
-
-The automatically generated EPUB of the CPython documentation always
-contains hundreds of validation errors and even the modest amount of
-documentation here [[https://files.au.adversary.org.s3.amazonaws.com/crypto/gpgme-python/rst/epub/GPGMEPythonBindings.epub][produced a file]] with approximately thirty
-validation errors.  As the volume of documentation content increases,
-so does the induced errors.  Whereas Texinfo doesn't produce EPUB
-output at all, nor does Org-mode.
-
-Should there ever be genuine demand for this format, lodge a [[https://dev.gnupg.org/maniphest/task/edit/form/4/][feature
-request]] case marked for [[https://dev.gnupg.org/p/BenM/][my]] attention.  The means of generating such
-files flawlessly is already available, but is not yet part of the
-GnuPG build system.  Nor is it integrated with a means of converting
-Org mode input files to the relevant base format automatically, as can
-already be done when converting Org to reStructuredText or Org to
-Texinfo.  As a certain amount of work would be required to get it
-done, there would need to be clear demand for that work to be done.