[Python-Dev] Python Package Management Roadmap in Python Releases (original) (raw)

David Lyon david.lyon at preisshare.net
Thu Oct 22 04:13:09 CEST 2009

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:38:26 -0700, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:

But that assumes you can get your tool into the stdlib.

No I'm not assuming that I can. I am actually assuming that I cannot..

So lets move forward..

It would have been better to phrase the question as "is there interest in having a package manager tool included with Python" rather than ask us out of the blue what GUI you should use.

ok - but I think I know the answer to that.. you answer it next.

David, you are making a huge leap here thinking that we even want a package manager in the stdlib.

Well - who is 'we'? If it's python-dev people I can accept and respect that.

If it's regular developers out there in developer land, I'm not so sure about your assertion. I'd even politely have to disagree from my experience.

You did not ask about menu shortcuts but whether a package manager should be written using Tk or a web front-end.

I was thinking about the issue on the fly...

Menu shortcuts that link off to a a standard community web page would be an excellent compromise - in the case where some tool could not be added.

That would be a tremendous improvement for windows users over what they are given at the moment.

Then you start discussing about wanting to add some UI to package management by default on Windows or add some tool that sounds like what the EU is going to have MS stick in front of users to get new user by browsers. This extends beyond adding some shortcut the Windows installer adds to someone's machine.

That's going further than what I'm saying..

I realize you are trying to help, David, but you are going in the wrong direction here and pushing rather hard.

On the counter side, others are pushing rather hard for 0 improvement for the windows platform for the user experience. While everything else on windows rushes ahead..

My direction is improving the developer experience for windows users. I can't do compiler writing. I'm not clever enough.

At the language summit we discussed opening up some APIs in distutils about making it easier for people to write package management tools, but we don't have a burning desire to get into the tool business.

ok - but nothing happened there...

I'm not in the tools business either. I'm not doing it for money but that shouldn't be the point.

We make a language here. Distutils exists as a bootstrap mechanism for the package story and for our own building needs of the stdlib.

I accept that it's a tool for building stdlib. No debate.

But I doubt I am the only core developer who has no interest to be in charge of a package management tool when there already exists several good ones out there that people seem to find on their own without issue.

umm.. I disagree with the 'without issue' statement. I'm sure if I tralled the mailing lists I could find more than one..

Enough from me for now. Thanks Brett.

David

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