[Distutils] How can I create prebuilt distributions?

[M.-A. Lemburg]

David Ascher wrote:
> M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> 
>> This is basically what ActiveState does with their .ppm format:
>> they ship a tarred build directory and then run something like
>> "python setup.py install" on the target machine.
> 
> Right.  There were quite a few problems with that -- many of the 
> setup.py's for example could only work with the full source 
> distribution, etc. etc.
> 
>> At some point way back in time they wanted to make this code
>> available to Python for general usage, but it seems they have
>> lost interest (in so many things :-().
> 
> Aw, don't be so mean.

Ah, not being mean... it's just that I have asked so many
times to make the code public and nothing ever happened.

> The PyPPM stuff has two parts -- the server, which 
> is written in Perl (we use the PPM server that was developed for Perl a 
> long time ago), and the client.  The client isn't pretty code, it's very 
> brittle, etc.  I don't think it's a favor to anyone to use it.

Even if it's ugly code, it could still provide

a) information of how this can be done

b) opens up the world to ActivePython

There has been some work put into a package directory recently
(see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0301.html) and registering
.ppm like files in such a directory would sure make the Python
experience an even better one :-)

Here's a demo: http://www.amk.ca/cgi-bin/pypi.cgi

> I am very interested in doing this still, and I'm hoping that we can 
> find some resources to do it "right" at some point.  It's true that we 
> have had to focus on some things beyond others.

That would be great :-)

The system is missing the "get the stuff and install it" part
(which is good, since its better to do this in small steps
rather than coming up with big ideas and then losing interest).

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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