[Distutils] People want CPAN :-)

Tarek Ziadé ziade.tarek at gmail.com
Sat Nov 7 02:19:02 CET 2009


On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 1:35 AM, Milind Khadilkar <zedobject at gmail.com> wrote:
> QUOTE
> imho,
>
> PyPI + PEP 381 + PEP 381 compliant clients == CPAN
> UNQUOTE
> In addition to PyPI, PEP381, PEP381 compliant clients, we need a dash of
> changed outlook to get CPAN. The Perl community is --  by hearsay --
> oriented sympathetically towards people who are not primarily programmers.
> In particular, I have heard scientists and finance persons developing web
> applications say this when introduced to python.
>
> But the same people were more satisfied with the python stuff when somebody
> helped them through the technicalities.
>
> When someone encounters PyPI for the first time, is it easy to learn about
> it from the PyPI page itself? Hopeful clicks on the "tutorial" link brings
> up a bewildering  CheeseShop Tutorial, without an explanation of what
> CheeseShop is. Reading through the options detailed in the page makes sense
> only if you already know about them. Definitely not the material for the
> beginner or for the technologically-just-adequate.
>
> By the way, the PyPI tutorial is just an example. The python community,
> while excellent in the support it provides to the technically competent,
> needs to be more friendly towards mere end-users. The attitude should be
> more charitable than "GOD helps them, and only them, who help themselves".
>
> Or, rather than between commuinities, is it actually the difference between
> Python and Perl as languages themselves?
>

I don't know about the difference between Perl and Python, but I do
know this about me
(and this applies to other people in this room I believe)

As a "packaging tools" developer I am totally plunged into the
technical aspects of the project,
and I unfortunately don't have all the time I wish I had to work on this more.
Especially right now because there's a lot of work going on.

So, for the documentation part, I am hiding behind the agile
manifesto, which says,

"working software over comprehensive documentation"

but that's a shame :)

Now, if you do want to help in the documentation so it's better for
newcomers, (in PyPI, Distutils, etc),
I think we would all be happy on such contributions

Tarek


More information about the Distutils-SIG mailing list