[Distutils] [Python-Dev] PEP 365 (Adding the pkg_resources module)

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 10:44 PM 3/18/2008 +0000, Paul Moore wrote:
>Someone should document these new functions :-( Was it you that added
>them?

Yes, and it was specifically to start pulling some of that stuff out 
of pkg_resources so it'd be more widely available.

>  Assuming it was, what's the "simplegeneric" function doing in
>there?

It's a substitute for the adapter machinery that the corresponding 
code used when it lived in pkg_resources.  Guido had just shot down 
adapting in favor of generic functions, so I used what I thought 
would be a more palatable name.  :)


>Can it be moved somewhere more sensible?

Er, sure, if you can get that past Python-Dev.  It's not a 
particularly full-featured generic function implementation, just a 
crude subset of the simplegeneric that's on PyPI.  If I were doing it 
today, I'd have called it 'trivialgeneric' instead.  ;)


>I don't particularly want to use undocumented functions - even within
>the module that defines them.

Er, you could always document them, you know.  I just didn't get 
around to it before the whole "setuptools flap of 2005" wiped out my 
motivation to do any further work on Python 2.5.  For the most part, 
they do have docstrings.  I just never did the LaTeX work on 
them.  And now, you can use reST instead of LaTeX.  :)