[Distutils] Ensuring source availability for PyPI entries / PEP: Build system abstraction for pip/conda etc

[Paul Moore]

On 10 February 2016 at 10:23, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
> IMO, that's easy to achieve, though, with the existing de-facto
> standard interface we already have: the setup.py command line API.
> We'd just need to publish the minimal set of commands and options,
> installer will want to see implemented in order to initiate
> the builds.

No-one who's investing time in writing PEPs is willing to thrash out
the details of how to use the setup.py interface in a formal proposal
that sticks to the sort of "minimum required" spec that alternative
tools would be willing to support. And there's no indication that tool
developers are willing to implement a setup.py compatible interface
format as you suggest. And finally, you'd need a way to declare that
pip installs tool X before trying to run setup.py.

So "easy to achieve" still needs someone to take the time to deal with
these sorts of issue. It's the usual process of the people willing to
put in the effort get to choose the direction (which is also why I
just provide feedback, and don't tend to offer my own proposals,
because I'm not able to commit that sort of time).

Paul