[Python-ideas] High time for a builtin function to manage packages (simply)?

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 1:25 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:
> Nathaniel Smith writes:
>
>  > That seems more productive in the short run than trying to
>  > get everyone to stop typing "pip" :-).
>
> FWIW, I did as soon as I realized python_i_want_to_install -m pip
> worked; it's obvious that it DTRTs, and I felt like I'd just dropped
> the hammer I'd been whacking my head with.

If the problem with this is the verbosity of it ("python -m pip
install packagename" - five words), would there be benefit in blessing
pip with some core interpreter functionality, allowing either:

$ python install packagename

or

$ python -p packagename

to do the one most common operation, installation? (And since it's new
syntax, it could default to --upgrade, which would match the behaviour
of other package managers like apt-get.)

Since the base command is "python", it automatically uses the same
interpreter and environment as you otherwise would. It's less verbose
than bouncing through -m. It gives Python the feeling of having an
integrated package manager, which IMO wouldn't be a bad thing.

Of course, that wouldn't help with the 2.7 people, but it might allow
the deprecation of the 'pip' wrapper. Would it actually help?

ChrisA