[Distutils] Delay acceptance of PEP 426 until after PyCon US?

[Nick Coghlan]

Previously, there was some urgency to getting PEP 426 approved, as it
was one of the conditions on getting wheel support into pip.

However, Daniel revised the wheel spec to allow metadata v1.1, thus
removing that dependency (since wheel dependencies work almost as well
with the de facto setuptools metadata as they will with PEP 426).

As one of the main reactions I'm getting to PEP 426 at the moment is a
lot of confusion about how it fits into the larger picture of "fixing
Python packaging", I'm considering postponing acceptance of the
standard until after PyCon US.

This will give me time to document more of the longer term
possibilities for addressing deficiencies in the current packaging
ecosystem, as well as being clear on *which parts* of the problem PEP
426 is trying to solve (as that is one of the other complaints I have
received: PEP 426 doesn't solve every problem we currently have. It
isn't meant to, but that may not be clear because proposals for other
parts of the problem aren't even being discussed).

Packaging will no doubt once again be a topic at the language summit
and of course we have the mini-summit on Friday night and the panel on
Saturday, all of which should help me address peoples concerns without
their eyes glazing over at the walls of text I tend to publish when
trying to explain complex topics over email.

Thoughts?

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia