[Distutils] setup_requires for dev environments

[Paul Moore]

On 16 March 2015 at 23:24, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> However, now that I know folks are keen to help with that side, I can
> reprioritise getting the updates done so there's a better base to start
> working from.

The thing I struggle with over PEP 426 is that as a data format
definition, which explicitly describes itself as defining an in-memory
representation, it's not clear to me what coding tasks are needed. (I
don't have enough experience with complex build environments to help
with the specification of the metadata, so my interest is in coding
tasks I can help with).

Writing pydist.json files is explicitly deferred to the yet to be
written Sdist 1.0, Wheel 1.1, and new distribution database PEPs.

The build system interface remains obscure (although there's note of a
further PEP to define the command line interface) because we don't
want to mandate the setup.py interface, but nobody has yet to come up
with a better idea. And there's not even a mention of a PEP covering
something like setup.cfg as a declarative means of providing metadata
into the build system (unless that comes under the "command line API"
description).

So we're left in a situation where there are people willing to help,
at least with the coding tasks, but no obvious implementation tasks to
work on. And yet people still see problems that we expect to be fixed
by "Metadata 2.0". So it does feel somewhat like a block on progress.

While I understand that there are real reasons why PEP 426 needs more
work before being finalised, is there no way that you (Nick and Donald
mainly, but honestly anyone with a picture of what a world where PEP
426 is implemented would look like) can list some well-defined
implementation tasks that people can *get on with*? The current
frustration seems to me to be less about PEP 426 blocking progress, as
about nobody knowing how they can actually help (as opposed to things
like the current debate, which seems to be rooted in the idea that
while PEP 426 should "solve" Robert's issue, nobody knows how that
solution will look, and what can be done to get there).

Paul