An FTP based Python Module repository (was Re: Imagemagick)

[chris patti]

Gerrit Holl <gerrit.holl at pobox.com> writes:

> > 
> > GH> Google -> PythonMagick -> I'm feeling lucky
> > GH> http://starship.skyport.net/crew/zack/pymagick
> > 
> > But when you try to download something all links are dead alleys or invalid
> > files. 
> 
> I'm sorry. I should have looked further than my nose is long.
> 
> (maybe this proverb is Dutch only, but who cares; everyone speaks
>  Dutch anyway)
> 
> groeten,
> Gerrit.

If I might be so bold...

One of the reasons for CPAN's success in the Perl world is that,
simply, it's an FTP archive.  

Thus, people can and do mirror it.  This creates a multi-site,
persistent cache of the entire library, so when the one site where
module Frobnitz.pm comes from goes down, the world doesn't suffer.

The Python world needs something similar.

Another big win in this is that it eases the automated retrieval and
installation of modules, in the Perl world we have CPAN.pm which lets
you say things like:

install frobnitz

And it will search the archive, find the latest version, download it
and install it to your local Perl installation.

Such a thing is _eminently_ possible in Python...

I have neither bandwidth nor disk to offer, so feel free to have me
publicly tarred and feathered for heresy :)

-Chris
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Chris Patti| \ Art Technology Group||617-386-1649 \ cpatti at atg.com
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