<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body><div><div style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">"add it to setuptools first, and then add things to distutils where we feel they're sufficiently stable to not need the benefit of the faster setuptools update cycle"<br><br>I nominate this as the official policy on API changes for distutils, with regular maintenance mode policies applying to anything else.<br><br>Top-posted from my Windows Phone</div></div><div dir="ltr"><hr><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">From: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="mailto:ncoghlan@gmail.com">Nick Coghlan</a></span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Sent: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">9/4/2016 2:19</span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">To: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="mailto:sylvain.corlay@gmail.com">Sylvain Corlay</a></span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Cc: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="mailto:distutils-sig@python.org">distutils sig</a></span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Re: [Distutils] What is the official position on distutils?</span><br><br></div>On 4 September 2016 at 06:44, Sylvain Corlay <sylvain.corlay@gmail.com> wrote:<br>> Hi Brett,<br>><br>> On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 8:05 PM, Brett Cannon <brett@python.org> wrote:<br>>><br>>><br>>> If Jason is up for the responsibility that seems like a reasonable<br>>> approach to take. It also helps test out features in setuptools first before<br>>> upstreaming it.<br>>><br>><br>> How do you see `has_flag` get into setuptools? By monkey-patching distutils'<br>> ccompiler to have it aside of `has_function` when setuptools is imported?<br>><br>> I find really weird the idea of adding this in a convoluted fashion instead<br>> of allowing incremental improvement of distutils.<br><br>The change to distutils would still be a plain patch to distutils, it<br>would just be accepted at the API design level in setuptools first.<br><br>The problem you're running into right now isn't a technical one - it's<br>that there isn't anyone that currently feels like they have sufficient<br>design authority over the distutils API to accept your proposal, hence<br>Brett starting this thread to address that underlying recurring<br>question, rather than the specifics of your change.<br><br>Jason *definitely* has that design authority over setuptools though,<br>and will be tasked with making any API additions available on older<br>versions of Python via setuptools regardless of what policy we adopt<br>for distutils maintenance, so if he's amenable to the idea, it makes<br>sense to me to invert the order we ask those questions: add it to<br>setuptools first, and then add things to distutils where we feel<br>they're sufficiently stable to not need the benefit of the faster<br>setuptools update cycle.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Nick.<br><br>-- <br>Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia<br>_______________________________________________<br>Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org<br>https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig<br></body></html>