[Distutils] Name the software! Package quality tester.

[Jim Fulton]

On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 4:15 PM, P.J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> At 11:46 AM 3/7/2011 +0100, Lennart Regebro wrote:
>>
>> I'll make a note of this in the documentation to clear it up.
>> Distutils2 is definitely in the minority at the moment when it comes
>> to calling them "projects".
>
> The term has been in use in setuptools since around 2005, but it hasn't
> caught on much outside of the small group of people who need to be able to
> speak precisely about the concept.  ;-)
>
> If you search the sig archives, though, you will find that it gets proposed
> and mostly-approved every time the topic comes up, of what to call these
> "things we distribute releases of".  The more-or-less consensus terminology
> (for people who need a precise terminology):
>
> package = thing you import in Python that contains modules
> project = thing you make releases of
> release = one version of a project
> distribution = a file that embodies the release of a project (may be source
> or binary)

+1

> People who don't care about precision just call everything a package, pretty
> much.  Heck, a lot of times I find myself starting to type "package" when
> I'm really talking about a project, release, or distribution, despite
> promoted the more-precise terminology for half a decade or so.  ;-)

The root of the problem, IMO, is Python's (mis)use of the name "package"
for what is really only a nested module. Heck:

>>> import distutils
>>> distutils
<module 'distutils' ...>

Given that Python 3 is a reboot, maybe it's time for the Python
community to start calling these what ``python`` calls them,
"modules".

If what we now call "packages" were called "modules", then we could
start using the term "package" the way everyone else does. I think
lots of people would be less confused.

Otherwise, I prefer we try hard to use the precise definitions
above. This topic can be confusing enough without making it more so
through sloppy terminology.

Jim

--
Jim Fulton
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfulton