[SciPy-dev] the scipy mission, include finite element solver

[Gael Varoquaux]

On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 09:23:44AM +0900, David Cournapeau wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Andrew Straw <strawman at astraw.com> wrote:


> > Well, fink ports the Debian package management to Mac OS X. Does
> > something equivalent exist for Windows? The actual Debian file formats
> > are pretty simple, so it seems like it should be do-able.

> What makes debian such a well integrated system is not so much the
> scripts - after all, rpm .spec files, debian files, port (BSd system)
> files are not that different. What matters is how polish the actual
> packages are. That's already difficult to do for one platform. That
> becomes very very difficult for many packages. The whole setuptools
> thing is a fiasco IMHO partly because it ignores this problem and
> gives the illusion it is easy (installing is easy, because it is just
> installing files, uninstalling is easy because it is just removing
> files - that's like saying programming is easy because it just moves
> bytes in memory). 

Right, a debian package by itself does not mean anything. What is
important is that, at an instant t, the debian archive strives to be a
self-consistent set of packages, that all build and run together, with
known relationship.

I think that one thing that contributes a lot to the quality of debian
packages (real ones, not fink, I don't know for fink) is that, under
Debian and Ubuntu, they are built is isolated environments. That way no
build or installation side effects creep in. Making a Debian package for
your soft is a great way to make sure that it really builds, 100% of the
time, because if it doesn't, one of the different build bots will find it
for you.

That culture is totally absent from Python packaging.

Gaël