My sense of the current position is:
- distutils exists for both Python and the broader ecosystem to build
both extension modules and package distributions
- we recognise that its able to do anything, but many folk find it
hard to work with - or are already invested in other build tools
- we're afraid of changing it in ways that cause incompatibilities
with e.g. the numpy eco systems heavy customisations, and we're not
sure we can recognise whether a given change is one of those
- and we're recommending that everyone move away from directly using
distutils to using setuptoools - but setuptools *is* distutils in many
many ways, so this doesn't loosen our dependency and stability
considerations around distutils
So basically the normal 'module goes to the stdlib to freeze' effect.
I haven't read about Sylvain's proposed changes yet - ETHINGSTODO :(.
I can happily agree with a position that making distutils directly
usable is a non-goal... but insofar as making it more usable makes
setuptools more usable, that would be a goal :/.
-Rob
On 29 August 2016 at 05:05, Brett Cannon
The discussion of Sylvain's proposed changes to distutils suggests that there isn't a clear-cut agreement or position of this SIG -- and thus Python -- on changes to distutils, its future, etc. Is there an official position I'm not aware of? If not, could we get one so we know how to handle any more proposed changes to distutils?
For me personally (and to start this conversation if necessary), I view distutils as the package in the stdlib that handles building extension modules in the stdlib for Python. That view means that if something doesn't service that explicit goal then it shouldn't go into distutils. Now that we are moving down the road towards making the build step configurable I'm fine with saying that distutils is not expected to work for people other than Python itself and others can use setuptools, enscons, or other projects while we continue to improve the situation to where the build system is just something you specify in pyproject.toml to generate your wheel. IOW distutils is only exposed publicly because Python doesn't hide anything, but making it useful for the general case of direct usage by people is a non-goal of the package.
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