I like the idea of switching to zc.buildout style entry points - it
makes it easier to get pip to a point where "no setuptools" means "can
only install from wheel files" rather than "can't install anything"
(that way pip can install setuptools from a wheel if it needs to build
something else from source).
I plan on making pip bundle setuptools regardless.
To underline how important that is, it's been discovered (though we are still working out _why_) that pip 1.3.1 on python 3.x+ is broken with setuptools 0.7+. Historically we haven't tested old versions of pip against new versions of setuptools (and with how quickly setuptools is releasing now a days that matrix is going to become very big very fast).
Bundling setuptools makes things way more stable and alleviates a lot of long term support headaches.
Also just to be specific entry points don't require setuptools, they require pkg_resources which currently is installed as part of setuptools but can likely be split out.
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Donald Stufft
PGP: 0x6E3CBCE93372DCFA // 7C6B 7C5D 5E2B 6356 A926 F04F 6E3C BCE9 3372 DCFA