[Distutils] PEP 426: proposed change to extension fields + entry points

[Vinay Sajip]

Daniel Holth <dholth <at> gmail.com> writes:

> We all must realize that incremental improvements are not harmful. Delay is
harmful; there has been no obvious way to make a Python package this decade
based on the idea that something better might be just around the corner or that
the current way will be deprecated. 
> 
> The goal of this version of the PEP is to better represent important
setuptools metadata statically while imposing as near to zero cost as possible
on the actual setuptools users. They will not welcome an unproven alternative
that requires work on their part. Instead, we change things a little bit,
support setuptools / distribute OR "something else" for 5 years, until
"something else" is obviously, compellingly better.

I'm not sure what work we're asking setuptools *users* to do: IIUC, the
setuptools files in .egg-info and the corresponding ones in .dist-info are not
edited by hand by users.

As far as I can see, having JSON-format files will not adversely impact the
workload for anyone, compared with the suggestion that Nick made (embedding JSON
in specific parts of a key-value format) and which I was responding to.

Regards,

Vinay Sajip