Yes, I am assuming that existing projects would at some point introduce a 3.x version and maybe continue a 2.x version as separate distros, similar to Python itself. Then the large number of existing unqualified dependencies on, say SQLObject, would pull in the higher 3.x version and crash. It's the older projects that don't get updated often that are at risk of being destabilized by the arrival of 3.x specific code in PyPI. Are developers for Python 3.x encouraged in 3.x guidelines to release 'fat' distributions that combine 2.x and 3.x usable versions?
Passive voice is misleading here: encouraged by whom? *I* encourage people to consider that option, rather than assuming it couldn't possibly work. Whether it actually works, I don't know. I hope it would work, and I hope it would not be fat at all.
Perhaps a convention of a keyword or more likely a new trove classifier that spells outs 3.x stuff, with indicators on package info pages and query filters on PyPI against that?
I'm fine with adding more trove classifiers if that solves the problem (although I still assume the problem doesn't actually exist). As always, a classifier should not be added until there actually are two packages that want to use it.
Can you kindly refer to some archived discussion for that?
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-April/063943.html
"I started looking at this. The number of complaints I got when I started on this that it would break the existing distutils based installers totally discouraged me. In addition, the existing distutils codebase is ... not good.
It is flatly not possible to "fix" distutils and preserve backwards compatibility." -Anthony Baxter
Thanks. I still have the same position as I had then - if distutils is broken, it should be fixed, not ignored.
A controversial point, I'm afraid. Perhaps it is time for a parallel rewrite, so that those setup.py who import distutils get the old behavior, and those who import distutils2 get the new, and we let attrition and the community decide which is standard.
Is there a list of the problems with distutils somewhere? It always worked fine for me, so I see no reason to fix it in the first place. Regards, Martin