[Distutils] Standard packaging API? (was Re: Are there any plans to move to pip/wheels in buildout?)

[Jim Fulton]

On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 8:55 AM, Piotr Dobrogost
<p at lists-2014.dobrogost.net> wrote:
> Are there any plans to move from easy_install/eggs to pip/wheels in buildout?

Buildout doesn't really use easy_install. It uses
setuptools. Originally, I tried to use easy_install directly (and do
in some special cases where I shouldn't), but I needed a real API,
which is why I moved down to setuptools.  My hope is that some new API
will emerge to replace setuptools.

> I have an impression that buildout project has stagnated

I prefer to say it's stable. :)

A great sign is that other folks on the project have driven recent work.

> which is
> unfortunate taking into consideration how much python packaging has
> changed recently.

Buildout as it, is is entirely dependent on setuptools to add wheel
support, at least until a new API emerges.

AFAIK, pip doesn't provide an API for use by other tools. I'd be very
happy to find out I'm wrong.

I hope there's room for more than one command-line tool for working
with packages in the ecosystem.  It would be crazy for each tool to
implement the low-level packaging machinery separately.  We need a
library to replace setuptools that pip uses and that other tools can
use.

Jim

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