[Distutils] source distributions for compiler-less machines

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Thomas Heller wrote:
> I'm currently hacking together a python package management system - I
> have some free time over the weekend ;-).
> 
> I just had an idea how to prepare source-distributions for people
> (on windows) without a compiler:
> 
> The developer could just call 'setup.py build' before calling
> 'setup.py sdist', add the '--no-prune' flag to the sdist command, add
> 'recursive-include build *.*' to the MANIFEST.in file, and now the
> build directory, with the object files and binary extension files is
> included in the zip file.
> 
> This source distribution can now be installed by 'setup.py install'
> just as usual - since all targets are up to date, the (nonexistant) C
> compiler will not be called.
> 
> Any comments on this idea?

That's pretty close to what ActiveState is doing with their
PPM format. Unfortunately, they haven't so far decided whether
to contribute the code for this or not, but PPMs are basically
pre-built, but uninstalled distutils packages.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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