On 23 February 2017 at 08:18, Nick Coghlan
I'm not a huge fan of having simple boolean toggles in metadata definitions (hence the more elaborate idea of two different kinds of dependency declaration), but this may be a case where that's a good way to go, since it would mean that services and tools that care can check it (with a recommendation in the spec saying that public index servers SHOULD check it), while those that don't care would continue to have a single unified set of dependency declarations to work with.
While boolean metadata may not be ideal in the general case, I think it makes sense here. If you want to make it more acceptable, maybe make it Package-Type, with values "application" or "library". On a related but tangential point, can I make a plea for using simpler language when documenting this (and even when discussing it)? The term "pre-integrated application" means very little to me in any practical sense beyond "application", and it brings a whole load of negative connotations - I deal with Java build processes on occasion, and the whole terminology there ("artifacts", "deployment units", ...) makes for a pretty hostile experience for the newcomer. I'd like to avoid Python packaging going down that route - even if the cost is a little vagueness in terms. Paul