[Distutils] Documentation: "Installing Python Modules"

[Greg Ward]

Hi all --

well, I finally sat down and started spewing Distutils documentation.
My plan is to write two howto-style manuals (maybe a bit bigger than
"Documenting Python", but along those lines) to be included in the 1.6
manual set.  (Clever of me to announce this intention in public before
mentioning it to Fred or Guido, just to make it harder for them to tell
me to get stuffed.  ;-)

The two manuals are tentatively entitled:

   Installing Python Modules
   Distributing Python Modules

So far, I have written one section of the "Installing" manual, entitled
"Custom Installation (Unix)".  This one is kind of important: it
explains how to use the Distutils to install modules to any non-standard
place, with lots of commentary on good practices and multi-platform
installations.

I want feedback on this on several axes:
  * Distutils terminology: eg. does "install-lib" mean what you think
    it should mean, or do you have a better idea?
  * Distutils semantics: eg. is the behaviour of "install-lib" sensible?
  * documentation organization
  * documentation wording
  * spelling, typos, typesetting, etc.

The docs are available at

    http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/documentation.html

Currently only LaTeX source and PDF available -- HTML soon.

-- 
Greg Ward - programmer-at-large                         gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science--it is opinion.