[Catalog-sig] [Distutils] Prototype setuptools-specific PyPI index.

[Tres Seaver]

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Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> At 07:08 AM 7/23/2007 -0400, Jim Fulton wrote:
>> On Jul 22, 2007, at 12:51 PM, Phillip J. Eby wrote:
>>> At 09:09 AM 7/22/2007 -0400, Jim Fulton wrote:
>>>> People should *not* misspell pages
>>>> when using setuptools.  They should certainly not use misspelled
>>>> package names in requirements.
>>> People do all sorts of things they shouldn't.  That doesn't stop
>>> them blaming other people for their mistakes.
>>>
>>> It's said that a 10% improvement in ease-of-use can double a
>>> product's users.  Case sensitivity is a barrier to entry for new
>>> users, and setuptools can't afford any additional entry barriers.
>> I totally don't buy this in a case like this.  People installing
>> packages with setuptools are technical users.  We expect them to
>> write Python scripts.
> 
> No, "we" don't.  Eggs were created to support application-level 
> plugins, such as are used by Trac and Chandler.  Trac and Chandler 
> users are not necessarily programmers, let alone Python programmers.

But by definition, the people typing the names of the dependencies into
a 'setup.py' for such a plugin *are* Python programmers, and could be
expected to know about case sensitivity.

I don't think Jim was areguing that human-centric *search* should punish
misspellings, but rather that encouraging such sloppiness in other
packages is a misfeature, especially if supporting it induces a tax on
*all* users of automated dependency resolution.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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