I've just read Guido's description on new features in Python1.6, including his description of distutils

http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=60533012

I'm a bit confused by the description of distutils, since it describes software that I haven't seen yet, even though I've been using 'distutils'. Guido describes a setup of m4 macros to generate a setup.py, which in turn generates a Makefile. This is a bit different than building a setup.py, and simply running it to compile and install extension code.

Are the distutils Guido's describes a superset of the distutils found on cvs.python.org/projects/cvsroot? Or have we forked distutils for Python 1.6?

I was somewhat medicated when I read this announcement and failed to notice the date it was posted. Guido was just playing a mean, mean April Fools prank on us.