[Distutils] Python people want CPAN and how the latter came about

[David Lyon]

On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:01:11 +0100, Lennart Regebro <regebro at gmail.com>
wrote:
> OK, so in the Perl community there is apparently a lot of confusion on
> what CPAN is. 

CPAN is plain and simple. There is no confusion, because there is
just one 'brand-name' for the whole kit and caboodle. "Packaging"
in the perl world just goes under the name CPAN.

> And in the Python community there is a lot of confusion
> about installation. 

Relatively speaking, yes.

> And although CPAN does't install and has nothing
> to do with installation, people in the Perl community think it does.

That's right. Because of the bundling.

> So according to you, when Perl people say "Python need CPAN" what they
> actually mean, according to you, is "We can't convert one package
> format to another", because they don't know that CPAN is the archive,
> not the installation program.
> 
> Is this correct?

The question is a little too complicated to answer directly on 
that wording.

However, a Perl user (speaking for myself) would typically 
know nothing about conversion of different package formats, 
because as far as I am aware the user isn't exposed to that level 
of complexity.

There is no .tar.gz, .zip, .bz2, .exe, .msi or .egg concept of
packages in perl. And having to pick one.. that may or may not
be right for your configuration.

Call a perl user a pampered pooch by all means. But all they 
know is that if they need a module.. then they use CPAN.

Really, some of these questions should go back up the management
chain for answering. We shouldn't be having expectations that
we can write code when drunk, fix it in the morning, and be 
merry and listen to ump-pah-pah music (like CPAN people).
Especially if the development process is to be reading and
commenting on PEPs.

Please.. lets just go back to the work at hand..

This is serious..

David