[Python-Dev] PEP 408 -- Standard library preview package (original) (raw)

Michael Foord fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk
Sat Jan 28 17:05:11 CET 2012

On 28/01/2012 05:09, Scott Dial wrote:

On 1/27/2012 8:48 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:

The thinking goes like this: if you would normally use an preview module because you can't get approval to download some random package from PyPI, well then your distro probably could or should provide it, so get it from them. That is my thought about the entire preview concept. Anything that would/should go into preview would be better off being packaged for a couple of key distros (e.g., Ubuntu/Fedora/Gentoo) where they would get better visibility than just being on PyPI and would be more flexible in terms of release schedule to allow API changes. If the effort being put into making the preview package was put into packaging those modules for distros,

That effort wouldn't be put in though. Largely those involved in working on Python are not the ones packaging for Linux distributions. So it isn't an alternative to preview - it could happily be done alongside it though. Those who work on Python won't just switch to Linux if this proposal isn't accepted, they'll do different work on Python instead.

then you would get the same exposure Packaging libraries for Linux gets you no exposure on Windows or the Mac, so preview is wider.

with better flexibility and a better maintenance story. The whole idea of preview seems to be a workaround for the difficult packaging story for Python modules on common distros I don't know where you got that impression. :-)

One of the reasons for preview is that it means integrating libraries with the Python build and test systems, for all platforms. Packaging for [some-variants-of] Linux only doesn't do anything for this.

All the best,

Michael

-- stuffing them into preview is a cheat to get the distro packagers to distribute these interesting modules since we would be bundling them.

However, as you have pointed out, it would very desirable to them to not do so. So in the end, these modules may not receive as wide of visibility as the PEP suggests. I could very easily imagine the more stable distributions refusing or patching anything that used preview in order to eliminate difficulties.

-- http://www.voidspace.org.uk/

May you do good and not evil May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others May you share freely, never taking more than you give. -- the sqlite blessing http://www.sqlite.org/different.html

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