Python package anthologies (was Re: ctypes 0.9.2 released)

[Peter Hansen]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:
> 
>>Of course, nobody is forcing anyone to include ctypes in the
>>standard distribution either, but it seems that the choice should
>>be made based more on what ctype's *users* think about it than
>>what someone who perhaps has rarely or never actually used it
> 
> ctypes' users can keep using it.  Putting it in the std distro would
> encourage a bazillion others to use it -- there's the rub.

I suppose that's true... it's definitely not hard to download
and install.

Hmm... this leads me to think that maybe what would be a good
idea is a small set of "anthology" distributions of a number
of related packages, allowing a "canned" installation of a
bunch of useful stuff at the same time.

I'm thinking specifically of things that would be appropriate
in the controls field, such as PySerial and ctypes, but I'm
sure other industry-specific collections could easily be
discerned.

That idea, turned into something more concrete, might be
enough to fill in the gap between the standard distribution
and the hundreds of discrete little packages which are scattered
around on myriad web sites.

-Peter