[Distutils] Python people want CPAN and how the latter came about

[Robert Kern]

On 2009-12-22 12:48 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" wrote:
>> By installer, I mean things produced by bdist_*. A significant portion
>> of windows users don't like eggs, and prefer .exe-based (or
>> .msi-based) installers. Currently, it is not possible to (reliably)
>> convert from one to the other (e.g. eggs->wininst), but there is no
>> reason why this is so.
>
> There is most certainly a reason. The binary distribution may be lacking
> pieces of source code that would be needed to build another (different)
> binary distribution.
>
> For example, if you have a Linux RPM or .deb, it is, in general, not
> possible to create a Windows installer out of this, as you may need
> to recompile extension modules. Including the full source code in the
> binary distribution just to support this rare use case is unreasonable:
> people who want a different package format can build from the source
> package.

Yes, that use case is rare (and bizarre), but the desire to convert 
Windows-platform eggs to .msi or .exe installers is not so rare and does not 
present the same level of difficulty. The latter is the use case David was 
referring to, not the one you outlined.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco