[Distutils] Setuptools for Python 2.5

[Paul Moore]

On 9/12/06, Phillip J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> Actually, that's not the reason.  Python 2.5 requires setuptools 0.7a1,
> which is only available from SVN.

Ah. In that case, the error is misleading but at least the solution is
straightforward :-) But I built and installed 0.6c2 as a bdist_wininst
and things seemed to be sort-of working. What actually goes wrong?
Something clearly does, but it's far from obvious...

> setup.py install.  Be sure to use the 0.7a1 version from the trunk.

OK, cool. Does the fact that I can use setup.py install also mean I
can just build a bdist_wininst and install that? That was what the
single-version-externally-managed format was about, yes? If so, do I
miss out on any of the multi-version features by doing things this
way?

> Probably, unless you set up to use MinGW as your compiler or install the
> relevant MSVC goodies, so that they can be built from source.

Oh, I have both mingw and (the free version of) MSVC. No problem there
- I misread the original problem as implying that it wouldn't build
from sources for some reason.

> One reason why is that setuptools configures its installation differently
> for different Python versions; there are entry points, for example, that
> are registered differently for Python 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5.  Some packages can
> have different dependencies, based on Python version too.  For example, a
> package needing ctypes for Python 2.3 or 2.4 shouldn't include the
> dependency when built for Python 2.5, as ctypes is in the stdlib there.

Fair enough. Presumably, as automatic building from source should have
worked, this doesn't imply a higher dependency on distributors
providing binary eggs than the old approach did.

Thanks for the quick reply!
Paul.