[Distutils] PEP 345 update + RFC on "Requires-External" and "Requires-Python"

[Tarek Ziadé]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Chris Withers <chris at simplistix.co.uk> wrote:
[..]
> I like the idea of Requires-Python, but only because I don't see why Python
> can't just be specified in the equivalent of setuptools' install_requires
> and its ilk.
>
> Why can't python just be treated as another package on while a package my
> have a particular version dependency?

But it turns it into a chicken and egg problem:  what happens if your
add "python>3" in "Requires-Dist" (the equivalent of install_requires)
?

Pip or easy_install is going to look for Python 3, and install it ?
then install itself in Python 3 and relaunch itself ?

I think Python is not to be treated as a package dependency, but as a
specific pre-request that has to be met for your application to run.
That's why it has to be specified separately from Requires-Dist.

Tarek