[Python-Dev] distutils & stderr

[Guido van Rossum]

> 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:

- verbose, tells you about everything it could do

- default, only tells you about things it does and not about things it
  skips

- quiet, only tells you about errors

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