[Distutils] desirability of multiple, divergent Python instances

[Ben Finney]

Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au> writes:

> Stephen Waterbury <waterbug at pangalactic.us> writes:
> 
> > My main motivation in proposing it is to give the user complete
> > control over the Python environment that is in their path -- which
> > is not easy to do on Debian/Ubuntu at the moment
> 
> This is a laudable goal. It is met, for just about every other
> user-configurable application, by allowing user-specific *overrides*
> to the defaults to be set in configuration files.

I'm glad to see PEP 370 <URL:http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0370/>
has been approved (2008-05-06) for Python 2.6 and Python 3.0.

    Abstract

    This PEP proposes a new a per user site-packages directory to
    allow users the local installation of Python packages in their
    home directory.

This addresses the issue following exactly the principle I described
above, so I heartily approve.

-- 
 \             "Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to |
  `\      recognize a mistake when you make it again."  -- Franklin P. |
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Ben Finney