[Distutils] Common version-comparison semantics for peace love and harmony

[Ben Finney]

"P.J. Eby" <pje at telecommunity.com> writes:

> At 10:32 AM 11/28/2009 +1100, Ben Finney wrote:
> > Moreover, AIUI there is no injunction that all projects must follow
> > exactly the semantics of PEP 386, right? So why not have a *simple*
> > standard (all version string components compared alphanumerically)
> > in PEP 386, that is known to work unmodified with existing package
> > systems, without Python-specific translation layers for version
> > comparison?
>
> For the simple reason that it involves asking one group of people to
> change how they work -- with no immediate benefit -- so that another
> group can avoid having to change how they work.

My understanding of PEP 386 is that it *isn't* about asking Python
developers to change how they work. Is that not right?

> Why should developers change, and packagers not?

Packagers *do* change how they work; Piotr has been explaining at length
how packagers put in efforts to meet version-comparison semantics half
way. I'm asking that the standardisation effort at least not make this
effort more difficult that it needs to be.

Moreover, what is a standard for if not for encouraging people to follow
it for the benefit of many?

> It's simply not an equitable request, which is why the proposal is
> unrealistic.

I think you're reading a proposal that I didn't write.

-- 
 \     “Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening |
  `\    our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole |
_o__)                       of nature in its beauty.” —Albert Einstein |
Ben Finney