[Pythonmac-SIG] Package Manager idea, adding a URL scheme

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 3 okt 2003, at 19:44, Just van Rossum wrote:

> Bob Ippolito wrote:
>
>> I think Jack is thinking too much about source package installs,
>> while you and I are focused on binary package installs?  The binary
>> ones are the real win of PackMan, and the source package installs
>> would be icing on the cake, mostly.
>
> Yes. I'd even go so far as to not support source installs at all...

Not supporting/using source-installs would also reduce the length of 
the package list, which is a good thing.

>
> Who needs source installs? I think it's only people who (for example)
> have their own private extension modules that extend Numeric. That
> should be a _very_ small group of people, and a rather savvy group at
> that: they might as well install Numeric without PackMan.
Or write their own PackMan infrastruture for distributing their private 
extension modules.

>
> Here's an issue that I'm not totally clear about: there are packages
> that need external frameworks, I think wxPython and Tcl/Tk are the main
> examples here. Are these special cases, or does PackMan need to
> _generally_ support installing external libraries? If the latter, what
> kind of consequences does that have for cross-platform support? Is that
> a reasonable goal/requirement at all?

In general the python wrappers for existing C libraries need a seperate 
install of the wrapped library (if not included in the OS). I 
personally prefer to staticly the C library into the python extension 
(makes it easier to distribute the extension), but that is not always 
feasable (sp?).

Ronald