[Distutils] PEP439 and backward compat / easy_install / distlib

[Paul Moore]

 25 March 2013 03:49, Richard Jones <richardjones at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> On 25 March 2013 14:11, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 3/24/13, Richard Jones <richardjones at optushome.com.au> wrote:
>>> This is a valid concern. Obviously "pip install easy_install" is not a
>>> solution - especially since the general intention is to deprecate
>>> easy_install eventually (as explained in Nick's response). I did not
>>> discuss eggs with the pip developers while at PyCon which is quite
>>> unfortunate. I would appreciate any insights from those devs on the
>>> matter.
>>
>> Why is "pip install setuptools" not a solution? It's easier than
>> getting setuptools installed is today.
>
> Because of the reason I stated later; it's a second hurdle that users
> have to get over before installing the actual thing they wish to
> install. All packages that depend on setuptools must include the
> instructions "but first install setuptools."

People have suggested pip offer egg (or wininst) installation for a
long time now. But nobody has ever come up with actual code to do
this. I don't think anyone should assume that such support will "just
happen".

Paul.