[Distutils] PEP 386 status - last round here ?

[M.-A. Lemburg]

P.J. Eby wrote:
> At 08:11 PM 11/28/2009 +0100, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>> Tarek Ziadé wrote:
>> > On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 1:08 PM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
>> >> Here's another take at a minimal change to the format which
>> >> includes the things we discussed, adds a few more aliases
>> >> for the "post" and "dev" markers and also adds optional
>> >> underscores for more readability.
> 
> Please don't add underscores to the syntax -- they will cause problems
> with the filename escaping and parsing used today by setuptools and
> compatible tools, and will produce inconsistent comparisons between
> "rational" versions and the version schemes supported by setuptools.
> 
> Ideally, it would be best to keep PEP 386 versions a strict subset of
> setuptools-supported versions, to minimize migration difficulties.

Filename parsing is a bad idea to begin with. The meta data
incorporated into file names should be read from a meta data file
or database instead, with the filename just being another parameter
in the set of meta data parameters.

Frankly, we are defining a standard for *distutils* and new packages
here - so I'm not sure in what way setuptools compatibility can be
used as argument for limiting the readability of a new standard.
OTOH, I'm sure that by the time distribute can take over the role
of setuptools, such limitations will have been lifted.

Besides, setuptools users can, of course, continue to use version
strings without embedded underscores.

Cheers,
-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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