There are many places in the python install code which look like this:

    print >> sys.stdout, msg,

Unfortunately these messages only go to the console and are not also included in the log file. If something goes wrong in the installation and you're trying to read the log file to trace what occurred the absence of these messages is a problem. It's as if only half the information is in the log file. A lot of the time the log file only contains a stacktrace from the failed operation but very little contextual information on what preceded the operation, you have to go back the terminal session and try to correlate the different output streams.