[Distutils] Prototype setuptools-specific PyPI index.

[Tres Seaver]

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Noah Gift wrote:
>>
>> But by definition, the people typing the names of the dependencies into
>> a 'setup.py' for such a plugin *are* Python programmers, and could be
>> expected to know about case sensitivity.
>>
>> I don't think Jim was areguing that human-centric *search* should punish
>> misspellings, but rather that encouraging such sloppiness in other
>> packages is a misfeature, especially if supporting it induces a tax on
>> *all* users of automated dependency resolution.
>>
>>
> In my humble opinion, I for one completely agree with Phillip.  I have had
> to sit down with quite a few new Python Programmers and show them how to use
> easy_install and I "thank God" easy_install is smart enough to figure out
> case sensitivity.  This is a wonderful feature!!!!  Please don't ever get
> rid of it :)
> Not being able to install a package as they couldn't figure out the exact
> name of the package could be the final straw for some new programmer to
> Python!

There are two different use cases here:

 1. User mis-types the name of a package on the command line, e.g.:

     $ easy_install Foo

    when it should be spelled:

     $ easy_install foo

    Being forgiving of case-mangling here ia a concern of the
    easy_install *application*, and is non-controversil.

 2. Programmer mis-types the name of a package in the dependencies
    for his own pacakge, e.g.:

      setup(install_requires=['Foo']...)

    In this case, coddling the error causes it to *propagate*, becuase
    other programmers will copy it directly, or depend on the error-
    filled package.  Worse, the cost of error correction is transferred
    to *all* users of the setuptools library, even if they never use
    'easy_install' at all.

I'm fine with leaving the newbie-friendly behavior in 'easy_install';  I
just don't like the performance hit it induces on users of setuptools
who *can* spell.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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