[Python-Dev] setuptools in 2.5.

[Anthony Baxter]

On Friday 21 April 2006 03:31, Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> skip at pobox.com wrote:
> > Maybe they know something we don't.
>
> oh, please.  it's not like people like myself and MAL don't know
> anything about package distribution...
>
> (why is it that people who *don't* distribute stuff are a lot more
> im- pressed by a magic tool than people who've spent the last
> decade distributing stuff ?  has it ever occurred to you that we
> know some- thing that you don't ?)

Er - what? I've been distributing, packaging and installing any number 
of Python packages for 10 years or more now. Sure, none of them are 
on the popularity scale of PIL or the mx.* tools, but there's been a 
lot of them. I also understand distutils pretty well. And I _am_ 
impressed by some of the features added by setuptools. 

As far as "knowing something you don't" - well, yes. You and MAL are 
undoubtedly extremely knowledgable about distutils. But it should not 
be a requirement for package authors that they become an expert in 
the packaging software just to make a release!

I said it before, and I'll say it again: The audience for Python 
should not only consist of the people on python-dev.

Anthony