[Distutils] setup_requires for dev environments

[Daniel Holth]

The problem with a no-stopgaps policy is that the non-stopgap solution
has to be incredible to ever be greater than the accrued debt of
((current pain - reduced pain from stopgap) * all python users * years
until non-stopgap) - (maintenance/documentation hassle * years since
stopgap implemented * everyone who has to deal with it), and we do not
know how great the non-stopgap will be.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 12:35 PM, Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> wrote:
> Donald Stufft wrote:
>> So yea, what's the actual problem that this is attempting to solve?
>
> ISTM (whether this is the actual intent or not) that this would be handy to differentiate between the dependencies needed when installing from a wheel vs. an sdist. Daniel's example of setup_requires including cython suggests to me that a wheel would include the compiled output and cython is not required in that case.
>
> I don't personally have a use case for this right now, though it does seem like it has potential to refer to a Python package that acts as a front-end for a compiler (and perhaps downloader/installer... hmm...)
>
> Cheers,
> Steve