[Distutils] Setuptools for Python 2.5

[Kevin Dangoor]

On Sep 20, 2006, at 9:47 PM, Phillip J. Eby wrote:

> Thus, I'm more inclined to make it *dumber* in future, not  
> smarter.  On
> Unix platforms, with Python 2.4 and up, one could do something like:
>
>      PYTHONPATH=setuptools*.egg python -m easy_install -a  
> setuptools*.egg

This may not be a bad idea for setuptools, but I'm actually creating  
a front-end installer for TurboGears (that currently includes  
ez_setup.py in the file). I realized that TG's install docs were  
dealing with things that could easily be checked at install time.  
(Python version, are you in a directory with a "turbogears"  
subdirectory, may even check things like "are you running random  
linux distro X that has problem Y?)

This script should ultimately eliminate our "having trouble  
installing doc?" and reduce the TurboGears installation instructions to:

1. get python
2. download tgsetup.py
3. run it

This deals with having an appropriately set find-links, being able to  
upgrade setuptools as needed, and will also handle offline install  
packages when we have them.

I think a lot of this is because setuptools is still new and not yet  
a standard part of Python. Once we're past the bootstrapping period,  
the need for this script will likely disappear entirely.

But, for now, it's nice having a customized script to give people a  
single, simple install command for first time installs and upgrades.

(You might be wondering how this relates to your message. D'oh! My  
point is actually that I have a use case for ez_setup.py as it  
currently stands.)

Kevin