[Numpy-discussion] Announcing toydist, improving distribution and packaging situation

[Darren Dale]

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 9:26 AM, Ravi <lists_ravi at lavabit.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 30 December 2009 06:15:45 René Dudfield wrote:
>
>> I agree with many things in that post.  Except your conclusion on
>> multiple versions of packages in isolation.  Package isolation is like
>> processes, and package sharing is like threads - and threads are evil!

I don't think this is an appropriate analogy, and hyperbolic
statements like "threads are evil!" are unlikely to persuade a
scientific audience.

> You have stated this several times, but is there any evidence that this is the
> desire of the majority of users? In the scientific community, interactive
> experimentation is critical and users are typically not seasoned systems
> administrators. For such users, almost all packages installed after installing
> python itself are packages they use. In particular, all I want to do is to use
> apt/yum to get the packages (or ask my sysadmin, who rightfully has no
> interest in learning the intricacies of python package installation, to do so)
> and continue with my work. "Packages-in-isolation" is for people whose job is
> to run server farms, not interactive experimenters.

I agree.

>>  Leave my python site-packages directory alone I say... especially
>> don't let setuptools infect it :)

There are already mechanisms in place for this. "python setup.py
install --user" or "easy_install --prefix=/usr/local" for example.

Darren