Paul Moore wrote:
And I would say that Windows doesn't have a problem. Are any Windows users proposing building a package management system for Windows (Python-specific or otherwise)? It's a genuine question - is this something that Windows users are after, or is it just Linux users trying to show Windows users what they are missing?
I think the requirements for a package manager are different on different platforms. On Linux, you need to be able to cope with files scattered all over the system, and complex webs of dependencies between packages. On Windows, you need to be able to cope with scattered files and multiple applications sharing a file, but not usually with dependencies, because each application typically comes with all the files it needs (even if some of them might not get installed because they're already there for another application). On MacOSX, applications are usually completely self-contained, include all their dependencies and are not spread around, so there's really nothing for a package manager to do. What all this means for Python package management, I really don't know. Whatever is done, I'd like to see it kept as dirt-simple as possible. Ideal would be the MacOSX situation where the package is just a directory of files that you put somewhere obvious, and you can tell what it is just by looking at it, and get rid of it by dragging it to the trash -- so you don't need a package manager. -- Greg