[Distutils] Importable wheels using distlib/distil

[Vinay Sajip]

Paul Moore <p.f.moore <at> gmail.com> writes:

> That's the big issue I have with *any* approach like this. It's
> entirely possible that the directory cannot be deleted, and as a
> result the user ends up with the problem of managing clutter caused by
> this mechanism. Even if the directory is in %TEMP% the user still has
> the issue of clearing up. Consider a buildslave that continually runs
> tests - temp directory clutter is a definite issue in a situation like
> that.
> 
> And of course, if an application user chooses to use this mechanism, I
> don't have an option to opt out unless we start getting into complex
> "if the package is installed use it, otherwise mount our internal
> wheel" logic.

Well, if you use the feature because it has its uses, you have to work around
any costs that it has. At least the problem isn't being ducked.

Plus, given that the wheel format is open, it's not a lot of work for an
application developer to do a zipfile.extractall() followed by a
sys.path.append(), whether distlib's Wheel has a mount() or not. Having
mount() might be facilitating a useful feature in a (slightly more) controlled
fashion.

> I'd like to hold off on this feature until there are actual requests
> for the functionality. It's not easy to argue against the idea purely
> on a "it might go wrong" basis without actual use cases to look at and
> see if/how they would handle the problem situations.

Didn't Jim Fulton say in a post in this thread that it was a useful feature?
I'm presuming he based this on real-world experience, but perhaps he would care
to clarify. In terms of "actual requests" - there haven't been any actual
requests for anything, other than suggestions to improve features that I've
unilaterally introduced. This is another instance of the same thing, it seems
to me.

This is a feature that eggs have but nothing else does, so it seems reasonable
to see if we can have alternatives. AFAICT, your worries would apply to eggs
too, it's nothing to do with wheels or distlib in particular ...

Regards,

Vinay Sajip