[Python-Dev] distutils & stderr (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 01 Feb 2002 10:48:22 -0500

I'm thinking that verbose should range from about -2 (no output at all, even from commands if we can supress it) to about 2 (stupid amounts of output) with the default being 0, where we take our guide from what make outputs by default.

I think the point is that Make has a more useful definition of what should be printed in the default case and what shouldn't, and that's the real problem -- not that there aren't enough levels. Fewer levels is actually better, since there are less ways to screw up. :-)

The specific problem is that by default you don't want it to blab about all the things it doesn't have to do because they're already done. Make got this right and distutils got it wrong.

I could see three levels at most:

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)