[Python-Dev] PEP: per user site-packages directory

[Steve Holden]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>> Right now Python faces a lot of problems in the webhosting world because it's
>> tedious to set up and maintain for the webhosting user since they often have
>> to compile and install their own Python in their home directory.
> 
> I don't understand why they *have* to do that. I can believe they do
> that as they don't know better - but why can't they use the Python
> interpreter already available on the system, and just install additional
> packages in their home directory?
> 
One possible reason is that the hosting vendor doesn't provide a 
sufficiently up-to-date Python release for certain site requirements.

>> I think this is extremely important due to the proliferation of Python now
>> more and more as a choice for webapp development.
> 
> For that, I think the requirements need to be much more explicit.
> 
True. But IMHO Python is still seen as a "difficult" language to 
package. We haven't reached CPAN levels of ease-of-use ye. Yes, I *do* 
know that CPAN isn't perfect, and I think easy_install is a great boon 
to Python users, but CPAN does a great job 98% of the time.

Maybe once we get easy_install as a part of the core (so there's no need 
to find and run ez_setup.py to start with) things will start to improve. 
This is an issue the whole developer community needs to take seriously 
if we are interested in increasing take-up.

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC              http://www.holdenweb.com/