[Distutils] [Catalog-sig] Prototype setuptools-specific PyPI index.

["Martin v. Löwis"]

>> - it does include a top-level index of all packages (but neither
>>   releases nor descriptions)
> 
> Why?  This is a relatively expensive page, due to it's size I assume,
> that really provides no value.  This will slow down setuptools.

IIUC, it won't slow down setuptools, as setuptools looks at it only
if it cannot find the real package page due to a misspelling. So
as long as everything is spelled correctly, it should not provide
any slowdown.

If people do misspell a package name when invoking easy_install,
they get the feature that you consider of no value.

As for performance - 30 downloads take 3.9s currently from nearby.

>> - it's always current, due to being dynamically computed
> 
> And also unreliable, for the same reason. For example, it would have
> been inaccessible yesterday afternoon.

The same could happen to Apache, too, of course. svn.python.org
sometimes fails to restart when a restart is request on log rotation.

Any software is unreliable; to reduce downtime, you need an operator
that is available when something breaks.

> And also puts more load on the server.  It would be much better imo
> if static pages could be written on writes.

Contributions are welcome. In addition to me considering it futile,
I also don't know how to implement it correctly.

>> - it may differ in the precise list of URLs displayed;
>>   if there are important deviations, please let me know.
> 
> The download and homepage URL anchors need rel="download" or
> rel="homepage".

Done.

> They lack the #egg= links.

How are these computed?

> Also, some packages use their pypi pages as their home page links.

Ok, done.

Regards,
Martin