[Python-Dev] Standard library vs Standard distribution?

[Steve Dower]

On 29Nov2018 1020, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> It's just _hard_
> and an awful lot of work, and apparently you're not volunteering to
> start it.  So saying "we should make an extended distribution" if you're
> just waiting for others to do the job doesn't sound convincing to me, it
> just feels like you are derailing the discussion.

The problem with volunteering is that I'll immediately get told to just 
go off and do it as a separate thing, when the condition under which I 
will contribute to selecting and maintaining a set of 
bundled-but-not-stdlib packages is that we're actively trying to reduce 
the stdlib and hence the core maintenance burden. Without it being a 
core project, it's just more work with no benefit.

I've previously volunteered to move certain modules to their own PyPI 
packages and bundle them (omitting package names to avoid upsetting 
people again), and I've done various analyses of which modules can be 
moved out. I've also deliberately designed functionality into the 
Windows installer to be able to bundle and install arbitrary packages 
whenever we like (there's an example in 
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Tools/msi/bundle/packagegroups/packageinstall.wxs).

Plus I've been involved in packaging longer than I've been involved in 
core development. I find it highly embarrassing, but there are people 
out there who publicly credit me with "making it possible to use any 
packages at all on Windows". Please don't accuse me of throwing out 
ideas in this area without doing any work.

When the discussion is about getting Python modules onto people's 
machines, discussing ways to get Python modules onto people's machines 
is actually keeping it on topic.

Cheers,
Steve