[Python-Dev] updating ensurepip to include wheel

[Paul Moore]

On 8 August 2015 at 04:53, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I do however think it would make ensurepip itself better, so I’m not dead set against it, mostly just worried about ramifications.
>
> I'd advise against letting concerns about Linux distro politics hold
> you back from making ensurepip as good as you can make it - if nothing
> else, the developer experience folks at commercial Linux vendors are
> specifically paid to advocate for the interests of software developers
> when it comes to the Linux user experience (that's part of my own day
> job in the Fedora/RHEL/CentOS case - I moved over to the software
> management team in RHEL Developer Experience at the start of June).
>
> That means that while I will have some *requests* to make certain
> things easier downstream (like going through the PEP process to figure
> out an upstream supported way to omit the build-only dependencies when
> running ensurepip), I also wholeheartedly endorse the idea of having
> the default upstream behaviour focus on making the initial experience
> for folks downloading Windows or Mac OS X binaries from python.org as
> compelling as we can make it. python-dev needs to put the needs of
> Python first, and those of Linux second.
>
> This does mean that any Linux distro that can't figure out how to
> provide a better open source developer experience for Pythonistas than
> Windows or Mac OS X is at risk of falling by the wayside in the Python
> community, but if those of us that care specifically about the
> viability of desktop Linux as a platform for open source development
> stand by and let that happen, then we'll *deserve* the consequences.

Sorry I'm late to this, but I would very much like to see wheel
installed with ensurepip on at least Windows. (I don't see any reason
why OSX would not be similar, but as I'm not an OSX user I can't say
for certain).

If Linux distros have issue with this, then maybe we need to do
something different there (I like Nick's comments, and would rather we
didn't make the Linux situation worse due to distro politics, but
that's not my call) but that shouldn't affect Windows/OSX.

There's a certain irony to me in the fact that we're reaching a point
where the Windows experience is the benchmark Linux users need to aim
for, but I'll avoid saying anything more on that one ;-)

Paul