[Python-Dev] Re: [Distutils] Questions about distutils strategy

[Jean-Claude Wippler]

"James C. Ahlstrom" wrote:

[...]
>     ftp://ftp.interet.com/pub/pylib.html

Ouch - what's wrong with zip archives?

There are utilities to convert to/from zip, to re-pack, to mount zip
transparently so it's entries look like regular files, FTP servers, etc.

Both Java (jar) and Tcl (Jan Nijtman's "Wrap") have adopted this format.

Zips would seem natural with JPython.  And suppose that scripting ever
starts to consolidate to a common scripting kernel (yah, well), do you
really want a system which is closing all doors to cross-fertilization?

Zip has an advantage over .tar.gz in that its table of contents is
available without having to decompress the whole kaboodle.

Your format has no checksum, which for deployment and long-term storage
can be important.

If you want a marshalled TOC, then why not add a manifest entry for it,
sort of like what ranlib does with ar?

You designed the format so archives can be concatenated without any tool
(other than "cat"), but this works just as well with zip files, as the
Tcl Wrap approach demonstrates.

Allow me to very, very loosely paraphrase Guido here: sure, everyone can
design an archive format, but they are likely to make the same mistakes
all over again - so why not adopt a format which is tried and tested?

With all due respect - I sincerely hope you will reconsider and alter
your code to work with zip files.  It's probably a small adjustment?

Unless your *intent* is to create a diverging standard, of course...

-- Jean-Claude