[Python-Dev] Thoughts fresh after EuroPython

[Tarek Ziadé]

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
[...]
> - A lot of things seem to be happening to make PyPI better. Is this
> being summarized somewhere? Based on some questions I received during
> my keynote Q&A (http://bit.ly/bdflqa) I think not enough people are
> aware of what we are already doing in this area.

Even people very involved in packaging are not fully aware of what's
going on. I am not for instance.
I think that we lack to communicate and synchronize on our efforts on
the PyPI development.

The last example I have in mind is that I have announced here that I
was working on a patch for
the checkbox problem, then Martin announced today on catalog-sig it
was fixed by Georg and
updated in production :)

I think we need to improve this: it can be a very frustrating
experience to contribute to PyPI.

Possible improvements:

- Have a PyPI component at bugs.python.org so all work on bugs/new
features would be known and
  followed by at the same level than other packaging components we
maintain, and that depend on PyPI
  (distutils, distutils2) -- e.g. drop the sourceforge tracker

- Make it easier to contribute by moving the PyPI code base to
hg.python.org. Unlike Python, this is
  a very simple move.

> Frankly, I'm not sure
> I do, either: I think I've heard of a GSOC student and of plans to
> take over pypi.appspot.com (with the original developer's permission)
> to become a full and up-to-date mirror.

That would be great if the student could promote his work at Catalog-SIG.

> Mirroring apparently also
> requires some client changes.

Mirrors can be used as long as you manually point a mirror when using
them. We we are working on making the
switch automatic.

Regards,
Tarek

-- 
Tarek Ziadé | http://ziade.org