[Distutils] More documentation for setup meta-data

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Richard Jones wrote:
> I'm trying to better document the meta-data for the distutils (and hence 
> PyPI). I've added words to the section in the dev doc about meta-data, and 
> would like some feedback before I post the patch to be applied. Sorry, it's 
> in LaTeX form (until someone writes the ReST->python doc converter ;)
> 
>   \lineiii{download_url}{a location where the package may be 
> downloaded}{URL}{(3)}
>   \lineiii{classifiers}{a list of Trove classifiers}{list of strings}{(3)}
> \end{tableiii}

download_url is not a valid Distribution option (even though it
is listed in the DistributionMetaData). I wonder why you mention
it here.

The concept of a single URL for downloads seems to simplistic to
handle the issues involved with automatic installation. This
information should also be provided in a lazy way, so that the
package author can easily update the download links, e.g. by
placing the information in an XML file on his site and then
referencing this file in the distutils meta data.

The file should then be parsed by a distutils subcommand to
find the right download URL depending on the platform and
Python version.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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