[Distutils] Splitting distribute in several distributions

[Barry Warsaw]

On Aug 12, 2009, at 4:35 AM, Tarek Ziadé wrote:

> I am not sure because the only use case I have in mind is comparing  
> versions
> when you install, update or check installed distributions. What I  
> propose
> is to leave the version stuff in installer, and as soon as we realize
> it's needed
> elsewhere (that will happen if it's the case before 0.7 is out), we
> split it on its own.

One feature I would love to see make standard is the ability to import  
a package and check its __version__.  Version information must be  
available from Python, and it seems like __version__ is the standard  
place to put it.  Too many times I've had to figure out the version of  
foo.bar that I'm using.  When I can do

 >>> import foo.bar
 >>> foo.bar.__version__
3.2.1

I am a much happier camper.

Right now this is largely left to the library developer, but I think  
distribute has some influence here.  People want to describe version  
numbers in only one place and if that's in the metadata, they'll tend  
not to also include it in the package namespace.  In that case,  
providing for a recommended standard way of doing it is essential.

-Barry

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