[Distutils] Random bits

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Greg Ward writes:
>On 27 November 1999, A.M. Kuchling said:
>> Does this mean that 0.4.1 is equivalent to 0.41 in the strict
>> versioning class?  I'd suggest adding that, just to make it crystal
>> clear.

Sorry, I miswrote; I meant, "if that is the case, the example should
be added to the docstring to make it clear."  If that's not the case,
though, I wasn't suggesting adding it, and agree that the 1.11 ==
1.1.1 consequence is unpleasant.

>...which probably just means I need to work on the documentation.

It would be a good idea to have a brief page or two up top which
covers the basics extremely quickly, letting you get started quickly.
The Python distrib's README sets a good precedent:

    If you don't read instructions
    ------------------------------

    Congratulations on getting this far. :-)

    To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
    current directory and when it finishes, type "make".  The section
    Build Instructions below is still recommended reading. :-)
 
    ... <and then continues for about 900 more lines>

>could say "setup.py dist" to make the Distutils 0.1 release.  It works
>for putting together the Distutils release, but isn't much good for
>anything else.  ;-(  See my next post...

Actually, I thought it worked fine, once I figured out the hard-link
thing, and I really liked the ability to write patterns in the
MANIFEST.

Another thing I thought of: Tools/versioncheck from the Python distrib
should be supported in some way.  While versioncheck is for checking
the versions of installed packages (so it's not obsoleted by the
Distutils), it's still worth adding a 'checkversion' command that
would simply print out whether a more recent version of the code is
available.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators
has succeeded: and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
    -- Edmund Burke, _Reflections on The Revolution in France_