[Python-Dev] PEP 365 (Adding the pkg_resources module)

[Guido van Rossum]

There seems to be a misunderstanding about what I am proposing we do
instead. The boostrap installer should only be powerful enough to
allow it to be used to install a real package manager like setuptools.
Maybe my use of Django as an example was confusing; I didn't actually
mean that it should be possible to support installing Django directly
(although I don't understand all the issure that would make it
impossible). Only very few people would care about writing a setup
script that works with this bootstrap module; basically only package
manager implementers.

--Guido

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum writes:
>
>   > I am hoping that someone will create a simpler bootstrap module
>
>  FWIW (I've never tried to implement one of these things) I agree with
>  Phillip.  This is not possible in the sense you are advocating.
>  Anything "simpler" is simply an invitation to an unending stream of
>  issues, far more so than adopting eggs as a best current practice
>  would.  Better to Just Say No to an installer in the stdlib.
>
>
>   > I'm not sure a PEP is even needed
>
>  This I simply don't understand.  I *have* participated in bolting on
>  features to such systems, and it's a mess.  As features are added,
>  existing users will demand that old packages install exactly as they
>  ever did, except that sometimes (but not always!) they want them
>  upgraded to put things in newly blessed places.  Features are easy to
>  add, since on the main thread of control installers are basically just
>  a sequence of single commands, sometimes optional.
>
>  python-dev has some pretty good controls that will help slow such
>  trends.  Nonetheless, PEP-less development of an installer system is
>  scary.  Installer complexity is a creeping horror, worse than
>  kudzu.[1]
>
>
>  Footnotes:
>  [1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#Invasive_species

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)