[Distutils] [Numpy-discussion] Proposal: stop supporting 'setup.py install'; start requiring 'pip install .' instead

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Sat, Nov 7, 2015 at 3:16 PM, Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:
[...]
> The outcome of all of these types of installs are subtly different and we’ve had a number of users regularly get confused when they act differently over the years. I do not think it’s possible to make (5) act like anything else because it is inherently different, however I think we can get to the point that 1-4 all act the exact same way. and I think the way to do it is to change these so instead it is like:
>
> 1. I have a wheel and pip installs it.
> 2. I have an sdist and pip turns it into a wheel and then pip installs it.
> 3. I have a directory and pip turns it into a sdist and then pip turns that sdist into a wheel and then pip installs it.
> 4. I have a directory and pip installs it in editable mode.

I wrote some more detailed comments on this idea in the reply I just
posted to Paul's message, but briefly, the alternative way to approach
this would be:

1. I have a wheel and pip installs it
2. I have an sdist and pip unpacks it into a directory and builds a
wheel from that directory and then pip installs it.
3. I have a directory and pip builds a wheel from that directory and
then pip installs it.
4. I have a directory and pip installs it in editable mode.

This is actually simpler, because we've eliminated the "create an
sdist" operation and replaced it with the far-more-trivial "unpack an
sdist". And it isn't even a replacement, because your 2 and my 2 are
actually identical when you look at what it means to turn an sdist
into a wheel :-).

-n

-- 
Nathaniel J. Smith -- http://vorpus.org