John> If a Python build needs all that, something in ./configure should John> be checking for each of those. After all, that's what ./configure John> is supposed to be for. It looks like a Python install will plow John> ahead without ncurses-devel, and install a dud version.
As another person pointed out, you're conflating Python proper with a specific Linux distribution's packaging techniques. I run on a Mac and use MacPorts. There is no ncurses-devel package there, just ncurses and ncursesw. Building a Python interpreter doesn't require ncurses. It's an add-on module which happens to be distributed with Python. The distutils setup.py script checks for ncurses bits and indeed "plows ahead" if it's not found. Not all systems (Windows, in particular) have ncurses. Skip -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list