2009/10/13 Michael Whapples <mwhapples@aim.com>:
As it seems that setuptools is not "dead" just possibly a bit slow at being updated, could I ask what are the aims of the various projects setuptools and distribute (please try and keep this information restricted to your project and what it aims to do)?
Distribute is created as a response to setuptools not getting the maintenance it deserves. It provides various bugfixes that has been known in setuptools for a long time but not solved. It also nowadays provides Python 3 support.
I have to say from my view (as a developer of my own packages only using setuptools/distribute to help package my packages) that it currently looks a horrible mess, distribute tries to replace setuptools and does it in such a way that any package which specifically wants setuptools has to use distribute if another package wants it
Distribute is a fork and a complete replacement of setuptools. Hence you can only have one installed in each environment at once. Yes it's a mess. There really is not many reasons for any package to require distribute over setuptools. It's not a package choice, it's a user-choice.
create my own custom code to give the features I currently really use from setuptools/distribute until this "mess" has been cleaned up.
I know this idea of going a custom route doesn't really help things
If it helps you, it helps. -- Lennart Regebro: Python, Zope, Plone, Grok http://regebro.wordpress.com/ +33 661 58 14 64