[Distutils] Deprecating little used file types/extensions on PyPI?

[Robert Collins]

On 22 Aug 2016 4:18 AM, "Nick Coghlan" <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 21 August 2016 at 18:21, Robert Collins <robertc at robertcollins.net>
wrote:
> > tl;dr: I think standardising on .tar.gz would be a rather shortsighted
> > thing to do, given how many Windows users Python has and how much of a
> > different supporting .zip makes for workflow on that platform - with
> > no negative impacts on any other platform.
>
> Once we have a universal default, unilaterally changing that default
> gets easier, rather than harder - the main precedent being set here is
> that we *don't want* the default format to be platform dependent, we
> want there to be just one default.
>
> My core assumption in recommending starting with tar.gz as that
> universal default is that Windows users will mostly be interacting
> with sdists through tooling that is closely linked to or at least
> originated in the Python ecosystem (easy_install, pip, PyPM, conda,
> Enthought Canopy, buildout, Christoph Gohlke's Windows installers),
> and that double-clicking a Python sdist in an Explorer window is not
> something most folks are in the habit of doing.

It is certainly wrong for me, when I'm using Windows, and when I've
shoulder surfed others also. E.g. at pycon sprints.

> By contrast, I *know* Linux distros are in the habit of pulling
> release tarballs from PyPI and feeding them directly into their
> release pipelines, so the potential for unanticipated breakage seems
> much higher there, and more likely to fall on community distros rather
> than on commercial Python redistributors (simply because there are
> more volunteers working on Linux based tooling than there are on
> WIndows developer tools).

Those pipelines are mature, poly format capable and centralized, containing
the damage.

-Rob
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