[Python-Dev] draft PEP: virtual environments

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:50:24 +0000 (UTC)
Vinay Sajip <vinay_sajip at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Antoine Pitrou <solipsis <at> pitrou.net> writes:
> 
> > I don't understand why a zip file makes this easier (especially the
> > "update selectively" part).
> 
> Not a zip file specifically - just a binary stream which organises scripts to be
> installed. If each class in a hierarchy has access to a binary stream, then
> subclasses have access to the streams for base classes as well as their own
> stream, and can install selectively from base class streams and their own stream.

Isn't that overengineered? We're talking about a couple of files.
It's not even obvious that third-party tools will want to modify them,
instead of writing their own (if the venv API is stable, it should be
relatively easy).

> I'm not saying you couldn't do this with e.g. directory trees; it just seems
> neater to have the scripts in a black box once they're deployed, with a zip file
> representing that black box.

I don't know why it's neater. After all, we install .py files in their
original form, not in a zipfile (even though Python supports the
latter).

Regards

Antoine.