[Python-Dev] RFC: Including PIL in 1.6

Paul Prescod paul@prescod.net
Tue, 20 Jun 2000 15:30:13 +0200


Greg Ward wrote:
> 
> ...
> -1 from me.  What's the point of the Distutils if we just throw
> everything "useful" into the standard distribution?

One way to look at it is vertical versus horizontal. I think that that's
how the Java world works (unofficially). If Java is one extreme and ANSI
C is on the other, I prefer to err on the Java side (which we probably
do).

The big issue is configuration management. if we put PIL (or anything
else) in the standard distribution we are promising to keep that code in
sync with everything else. This is a big boon to users and a big
headache for maintainers. The question is when the boon is enough to
justify the headache.

It's one thing to tell a user: "Just type distutils and everything will
magically become available." But they usually come back: "I'm getting an
error message about append not taking that many arguments..." or
something like that. Libraries breaking libraries is actually the most
common case.

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for himself
"Music is the stuff between the notes." - Claude Debussy