[Distutils] Some negative press for easy_install

[Michael Twomey]

Whoops, I just noticed previous messages on this, ignore me.

Michael

On 09/02/06, Michael Twomey <micktwomey at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Joe Gregorio has a fairly negative experience with easy_install here:
> http://bitworking.org/news/Please_stop_using_setuptools__at_least_exclusively__for_now____
>
> I think his points boil roughly down to these:
>
> 1. (not directly related to his first comment, but I think this might
> be a source of problems) easy_install isn't always called
> easy_install. In my case I've wound up with easy_install.py on some
> systems at some point in the past. Would a possible solution be to
> allow "python -m easy_install"? Then again I think it's pretty
> consistent these days.
>
> 2. No --prefix option. I think this is a case of RTFM, since it's not
> normally as simple as specifying a prefix. Maybe a help message which
> explains why --prefix isn't supported might be useful?
>
> 3. In the error message he gets it shows bog standard distutils help,
> so he tries --help-commands and gets an error. I think this is a
> definite source of frustration.
>
> 4. He tries the --install-dir option which installs the package but of
> course this leads to a multi-install so he can't do a plain import
> foo. It might be good to link to
> http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall#custom-installation-locations
> for an explanation here.
>
> 5. At this point he gives up and copies the source from svn.
>
> I think in all the above there is an element of RTFM but he does have
> a legitimate point when it comes to the command line help, based off
> that alone you aren't likely to figure out the best way to use
> easy_install if you are doing a non-system python install. I think a
> link to http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall in the
> help would work wonders.
>
> cheers,
>   Michael
>