[Distutils] Attempted summary of version number thread

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Greg Ward wrote:
> 
> I'm going to see if I can't make some sense out of the version-numbering
> thread of the last couple of days.
> 
> First: if you've already said your two cents' worth in this thread,
> please don't chime in again.  I think everyone has made their point
> quite clear.  (However, if I misunderstood you and misrepresent you in
> the summaries below, a brief correction to the list would be
> appreciated.)
>
> ...
>
> The anarchists are Greg Stein and Marc-Andre Lemburg; these two take a
> "live and let live" approach to version numbers.  They seem to concede
> that some very light syntactic requirements are necessary, but want
> developers to be free to define their semantics however they like.  (Or,
> Greg and Marc-Andre just want to write code to describe the existing
> multitude of version number systems.)

I wouldn't describe myself as anarchist... realist is more like
it ;-)

We should get on with more important things than version numbers,
IMHO, really. What's inside the package is important, not how
it is named. And that information is quite well captured by the
Trove meta records.

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What I'd like to see is a way that automates the build process.
Automating software updates is by far more complicated and should
be deferred for now.

BTW, Fredrik mentioned that building with VC++ on WinXX is
doable with command line invocation only. Wouldn't that be
a good start into unifying the make process on Unix and WinXX
[what about Macs ?].

A WISE kind of installer for Unices wouldn't look bad either.
Could be done using Tkinter or ncurses or simple text based dialogs:

/home/sweet/home> ./setup.py
PACKAGE FooBar

Show version information ? [No]
Show install guide ? [Yes]
Which Browser should I use ? [netscape]
...netscape fires up and displays the install guide...
Where do you want to install today ? [/usr/holidays/beach]
>>> building... ok
Should I run the test suite now ? [Yes]
>>> running tests... ok (output stored in FooBar.tests)
Display install summary ? [No]
Should I save your answers for future installations ? [Yes]
>>> saved to FooBar.installation

FooBar installed successfully.

All this is doable and could even be fun... I suggest just
hacking away at something like it and then abstracting all
meaningful bits & pieces into nice distutils modules.

PS: For the typical Unix freak we should also include
a README pointing her to ./setup.py and maybe even a
Makefile with all targets running ./setup.py using additional
parameters, e.g. setup.py --make install, setup.py --make clean, etc.

PPS: For the typical WinXX freak there'll have to be an
install.bat of course ;-)

PPPS: Don't know how the Macs do it... they probably just click
on the icon :-)

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg                               Y2000: 385 days left
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