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

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 10.02.2016 12:10, Paul Moore wrote:
> 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.

I don't think that installing 3rd party tools is within the scope
of such a proposal. The setup.py of packages using such tools would
have to either define a dependency to have the installer get the
extra tool, download and install it directly when needed, or tell
the user how to install the tool.

Alternatively, the package distro could simply ship the tool
embedded in the package. That's what we're doing with
mxSetup.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).

Wait. You are missing the point that the setup.py interface
already does work, so no extra effort is needed. All that's
needed is some documentation of what's currently being used,
so that other tools can support the interface going forward.

At the moment, pip this interface is only defined by
"what pip uses" and that's a moving target.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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