[Distutils] thoughts on distutils 1 & 2

[Bob Ippolito]

On May 14, 2004, at 12:20 PM, Mark W. Alexander wrote:

> On Fri, May 14, 2004 at 03:16:31PM +0100, has wrote:
>> - Reject PEP 262 (installed packages database). Complex, fragile,
>> duplication of information, single point of failure reminiscent of
>> Windows Registry. Exploit the filesystem instead - any info a
>> separate db system would provide should already be available from
>> each module's metadata.
>
> I agree with rejecting 262 as well, but not in favor of the filesystem
> but in favor of the native platform tools via bdist support. Solaris
> people use pkgtools for everything. RH and friends use RPM. HP people
> use SD-UX. Debianites use dpkg. etc. etc. etc.... God help those of us
> supporting multiple platforms.
>
> In each case, absent [expletive deleted] commercial package installs,
> all software and configuration management is consistent and, more
> importantly, effective. Anything on top of that; CPAN, Distutils,
> PEP 262, rogue admins with tarballs; _anything_ at all and people who
> have to deal with anything over a handfull of machines WILL eventually
> get caught with their pants down.
>
> If Distutils does not support simple, native package manager
> integration, then it ceases to be a solution and becomes just one more
> problem. A successfull implementation that creates native packages gets
> immediate support from apt, yum, yast, urpmi, pkg-get, swinstall and
> anything else, now and in the future.

Not all operating systems have a usable package management system 
(Win32, Mac OS X, probably others).

Not all users are superusers and can manipulate the system-wide 
database.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, PEP 262 can be revised 
such that it should cooperate with any existing platform specific 
database when possible and appropriate.

-bob