[Distutils] Questionnaire: Why do you use setuptools?

[Zooko O'Whielacronx]

On Apr 21, 2009, at 18:54 PM, David Cournapeau wrote:

> The problem with a new "Distutils2" 100 % compatible with the current
> one is that it is impossible to do without recreating all the things
> which it does wrong,

I'm sorry, I was unclear.  I do not think that it is super important  
for a programmer who currently uses setuptools to package their  
software to be able to switch to distutils2 to package their software.

I do think that it is super important for a programmer who uses  
distutils2 to be able to easily re-use the software written by  
*other* people who use setuptools, and vice versa.  This means the  
sdist format should be interoperable, probably the bdist_egg format  
should be interoperable, and the "install_requires" metadata should  
be interoperable.

It would also be nice if a programmer who is choosing whether to use  
setuptools or distutils2 to package their own software could consider  
the library of development tools plugins as equally available for  
both, instead of thinking "Oh, I could use the new distutils2, which  
has a cleaner design and is in Python 2.7, but if I use setuptools  
then I can continue to use all these development plugins that already  
exist".  So if distutils2 can re-use extant setuptools plugins, then  
that would be handy.

Regards,

Zooko