[Distutils] Provisionally accepting PEP 517's declarative build system interface

[Paul Moore]

On 3 June 2017 at 11:09, Thomas Kluyver <thomas at kluyver.me.uk> wrote:
> More generally, though, I'd question why you don't want those files to
> be in an sdist? Why should an sdist be any different to a snapshot of
> your VCS at release time, including all of your thoughts and tools used
> in development? Installation will usually use a wheel, so download size
> shouldn't be a major concern.

Because that's how my project is set up, and because that's how I tend
to work. Honestly, I'm not trying to debate what's right or wrong
here, just pointing out that flit feels to me pretty opinionated on
this matter, and its opinions don't match mine. Sadly, that means that
I don't use flit - even though as a tool for building wheels, it's
ideal for me. Maybe one day I'll make a PR, or fork flit for my own
use - it's so close that doing so seems easier than writing a
competing tool.

In the context of *this* discussion, it does mean that your arguments
about not wanting to support a general "build a sdist" hook come
across to me as "because I don't want to work that way" rather than as
objective constraints.

But it's not that important now, as we seem to have come to a
compromise on what the PEP requires anyway.
Paul