From: Mark W. Alexander [mailto:slash@dotnetslash.net]
In my view of the perfect world, the OS tools would deal with dependencies based on the metadata provided by the binary packages. [...] Since Windows does not provide that ability natively, then Distutils need not try to extend Windows to include it.
That (including the trimmed bit) sounds exactly right to me.
This is why I believe the core value of Distutils is the simple management of package metadata. Building, installing or making binary packages are all actions based on the supplied metadata. How the result is integrated into any particular platform should be as native as possible for each platform.
Exactly. And (IMHO) that is the key strength of the bdist_wininst command - it fits in with the existing Windows infrastructure (limited though that may be). I've no experience with distutils on non-Windows platforms, but I'd instinctively look for a platform-native bdist option (bdist_rpm, bdist_dpkg, whatever). Even if I have a pure Python package, I always go via bdist_wininst and an OS-level install. I *never* do python setup.py install. Just because of the OS integration. (And this is from someone with an instinctive mistrust of installers, due to long experience with buggy Windows installers for other packages!) (On Windows, it may be worth adding a bdist_msi command, to use the MS installer infrastructure, but I don't personally know if that adds enough value to justify the work involved. I'm not familiar enough with the MSI format). Paul. __________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail and the documents attached are confidential and intended solely for the addressee; it may also be privileged. If you receive this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and destroy it. As its integrity cannot be secured on the Internet, the Atos Origin group liability cannot be triggered for the message content. Although the sender endeavours to maintain a computer virus-free network, the sender does not warrant that this transmission is virus-free and will not be liable for any damages resulting from any virus transmitted. __________________________________________________________________________