ubuntu dist-packages

[Paul Boddie]

On 26 Aug, 17:48, Jorgen Grahn <grahn+n... at snipabacken.se> wrote:
>
> Well, if you are thinking about Debian Linux, it's not as much
> "ripping out" as "splitting into a separate package with a non-obvious
> name". Annoying at times, but hardly an atrocity.

Indeed. Having seen two packages today which insisted on setuptools,
neither really needing it, and with one actively trying to download
stuff from the Internet (fifteen seconds warning - how generous!) when
running setup.py, it seems to me that it isn't the distribution
packagers who need to be re-thinking how they install Python software.

Generally, distributions have to manage huge amounts of software and
uphold reasonable policies without creating unnecessary maintenance.
Sadly, until very recently (and I'm still not entirely sure if there's
really been an attitude change) the Pythonic packaging brigade has
refused to even consider the needs of one of the biggest groups of
consumers of the upstream code. Consequently, distributions will
always devise different ways of storing installed Python software,
documentation and resources, mostly because the Pythonic tools have
been deficient, particularly in the management of the latter
categories.

Paul