[Python-Dev] what to do if you don't want your module in Debian

[Barry Warsaw]

On Apr 26, 2010, at 09:19 PM, Piotr Ożarowski wrote:

>Many Python module developers do not want their work to be distributed
>by Debian (and probably by other Linux distributions), here's a list of
>hints that will help you accomplish that goal:

Okay, it took me a few bullet items to realize you were being sarcastic. :) I
almost starting writing an email asking why anyone would seriously want that.

This is a great list.  Something I have been thinking about lately dovetails
with this, but from a different direction.  Let's ask why the problems you
enumerate occur, and what can we do about them?

For example, there's a nice tool called 'Quickly' that builds application
templates using best practices.  It is opinionated, but designed for the
opportunistic programmer.  I've been thinking about writing a Python
application and/or library template for this which would make it easy to start
a new project automating as much as possible, and doing things The Right Way.

It may also be worthwhile putting very obvious carrots (rather than sticks)
out there to encourage people to write packages using best practices.  For
example, once snakebite is operational, I could imagine some kind of automated
testing suite for PyPI packages.  IOW, if you play by rules A, B and C, we'll
automatically grab your new package, build it, run the test suite, and put a
gold star on your PyPI page.

Some things of course, we can't automate, but I think the HGtP should provide
clear examples of best practices, and tools to adhere to them where possible.
It is okay (in fact encouraged) to be opinionated and not provide a lot of
variation.  Advanced developers can figure out how to do complex things
correctly, but let's make it easy for the simpler 80% of packages out there.

-Barry
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