[Distutils] Metadata debate for ages

anatoly techtonik techtonik at gmail.com
Tue Feb 11 16:45:33 CET 2014


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Paul Moore <notifications at github.com>wrote:

> and I doubt that will happen, as the metadata debate has been ongoing for
> ages, and it's *very* late to be coming up with requirements with
> significant implications out of the blue like this
>
This is from thread with my rant about versioning, which set a dumb
question in my head. What is the role of dot zero part in metadata
versioning?

I mean if there is so much debates, how about choosing a minimal first
thing that can be released? Reach consensus, release. Increase version. Go
another round of debate. Release. Test. Increment version. Release.

It seems that people are trying to make it perfect loosing the real
conflicting points in a ton of information. I am looking at 50+ pages PEP
in http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0426/ and the first thing I notice
that I don't understand why there are provisions like MUST and why PEP
named "Metadata" regulates what tools should or should not do and what
tools should exists at all.

To me, the "Metadata 2.0" PEP should specify only two things:
1. format(s) of the data, how it can be represented so that people can
process it
2. structure of the data - a set of fields, their values and cases when
they are applied

That's it. The things like "Automated tools, especially public index
servers, MAY impose additional length restrictions on metadata beyond those
enumerated in this PEP. Such limits SHOULD be imposed where necessary to
protect the integrity of a service, based on the available resources and
the service provider's judgment of reasonable metadata capacity
requirements." are out of scope of Metadata at all. This stuff belongs
elsewhere. If there will be a problem that metadata grows too large - it
should be recorded as an issue, and the next version of metadata should say
- fixed issues #..., #..., ... or just include a separate PEP for those who
don't know how to handle the load on their servers.

What do you think?
-- 
anatoly t.
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