[Distutils] An observation on how system packagers and developers can be friends

[Tres Seaver]

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On 10/28/2010 12:44 PM, Jim Fulton wrote:
> Periodically, in various venues, we discuss the challenges of
> deploying applications with or in spite of system packaging of Python
> and system packaging philosophies.
> 
> (Note that I'm mainly talking g about deploying applications, as opposed
> to individual Python packages.)
> 
> In my experience, the conversation usually unfolds with developers
> (like me:) snarkely saying how annoyed we are and systems packagers
> (and administrators) explaining all of the rules they have to follow
> and that we should follow too.
> 
> In practice, I think the result is usually that developers make an
> end-run around system packaging system, either building in production,
> or by building system packages that bundle dependencies to get needed
> control.  The result is that at least some of the system packagers
> goals are subverted.
> 
> In my experience, both sides have legitimate goals, but the problem is
> rarely, if ever, approached from the point of view of recognizing both
> sets of goals coming up with a (probably new) solution that addresses
> both sets of goals.  (Note that "doing things the way I've always done
> them" is *not* a valid goal. :)
> 
> I believe that solutions that address both sets of goals are possible
> and even practical, but it has to start with a consideration of the
> underlying goals.

I like the idea in general, but worry that some conflicts may not be
resolvable.  For instance, I don't know what goal drives system
packagers to specify UCS4 over the default UCS2, but I won't ever be
happy using a Python built that way for long-running, memory-intensive
applications, where I have measured the overhead of UCS4 and found it
unacceptable (e.g., a server app whose steady-state process size is
800Mb under UCS4, compared to 600Mb under UCS2).



Tres.
- -- 
===================================================================
Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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