[Distutils] Pre-pre-PEP: Requirements for the Python BUILDS Specification

[Ian Bicking]

Paul Moore wrote:
> My feeling, by the way, is that "system packagers" are the more
> relevant group on Linux/Unix (where most users install Python modules
> via system packages, or else they are developers)

I think this is part of why I don't understand the system packager 
perspective.  Developers shouldn't use system packages, it just doesn't 
make any sense to have that intermediation.  Users don't use Python 
modules, they use applications.  Users only care that their applications 
work, that they can install applications without unnecessary conflicts, 
that the applications don't break based on unintentional environment 
changes (e.g., the value of PYTHONPATH).

Packagers seem to care a great deal about having applications share 
libraries on the packaging level, but this is for their own accounting, 
there's no reason for users to care (except for the too-small-to-matter 
issue of disk space).  Also, packagers seem to jump the gun on this 
library sharing, as they are concerned about libraries when one (or 
often zero!) applications depend on the library.  Some widely used 
libraries seem reasonable, but for every widely used library there are a 
dozen or more niche libraries.  Users also don't care about /usr/share 
or /usr/lib -- the only thing *I* ever care about is /usr/share/doc, 
/usr/bin, /etc, and maybe a man page.


-- 
Ian Bicking : ianb at colorstudy.com : http://blog.ianbicking.org