[Python-Dev] BDFL delegation for PEP 426 (PyPI metadata 1.3)

[Nick Coghlan]

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 10:48 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Feb 2013 12:34:36 +0000
> Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So it's perfectly possible to use wheels right now, without the pip
>> integration. But the pip developers don't want to integrate the wheel
>> format just because it exists - they want the assurance that it's an
>> accepted format supported by PEPs, hence the interest in getting the 3
>> wheel PEPs (of which the metadata PEP is the first) accepted.
>
> But it's an "accepted format" by whom? If we accept the PEP but refuse
> to integrate support in the stdlib, it doesn't make much sense.
>
> I vote for removing the "distutils is frozen" principle. It was already
> destructive enough when packaging was still alive - bug fixes were
> actively turned down for the dubious reason that fixing bugs would
> break compatibility. Its rationale has become completely obsolete now
> that packaging has failed.

The rationale for the distutils freeze is "don't break setuptools".
That rationale still holds.

The most likely current candidate for integration into Python 3.4 is
distlib, which, as was proposed when packaging was dropped, is built
incrementally as components are standardised, rather than being a
mish-mash of updated code and flawed design inherited from distutils.

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia