[Python-Dev] Keyword meanings [was: Accept just PEP-0426] (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Thu Dec 6 00:11:23 CET 2012


On Dec 05, 2012, at 04:10 PM, PJ Eby wrote:

While it's certainly desirable to not invent wheels, it's important to understand that the Python community does not work the same way as a Linux distribution. We are not a single organization shipping a fully-functional and configured machine, we are hundreds of individual authors shipping our own stuff. Conflict resolution and package replacement (and even deciding what it is that things "provide" or "require") are primarily human processes, not technical ones. Relationship and support "contracts", IOW, rather than software contracts.

That's why, in the distro world, a package manager can use simple fields to carry out the will of the human organization that made those support and compatibility decisions. For Python, the situation is a bit more complicated, which is why clear thinking is needed. Simply copying fields blindly from other packaging systems just isn't going to cut it.

+1

Now, if the will of the community is to turn PyPI into a distro-style repository, that's fine...

Please no! -1 :)

-Barry



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