[Python-Dev] "setuptools has divided the Python community"

[Antoine Pitrou]

Paul Moore <p.f.moore <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> 3. Setuptools, unfortunately, has divided the Python distribution
> community quite badly.

Wait a little bit, and it's gonna be even worse, now that buildout and pip seem
to become popular. For example, the TurboGears people are considering switching
from setuptools to pip...

Tarek is now doing a lot of very useful work on distutils (thanks Tarek!), but
I'm not sure it'll be enough to stop people from converting to whatever of the
many build/packaging systems which have been popping up recently. Combined with
the current trend that everything must be exploded into lots of interdependent
but separately packaged libraries (the paste/pylons syndrome... try pulling
something like TurboGears2 and see how many third-party packages it installs), I
fear this is going to generate a very painful user/developer experience :-(

> My (unfounded) suspicion is that the argument
> was "having to use a separate installer is more complex than just
> using easy_install" - which is a highly debatable (and frequently
> debated!) point of view.

I'm not a Windows user, but I suppose it boils down to whether people are
comfortable with the command-line or not (which even many Windows /developers/
aren't). Since having GUIs for everything is part of the Windows philosophy,
it's a fair expectation that Python libraries come with graphical Windows
installers.

Regards

Antoine.