[Python-Dev] PEP 408 -- Standard library __preview__ package

[Scott Dial]

On 1/27/2012 8:48 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> The thinking goes like this: if you would normally use an __preview__ module
> because you can't get approval to download some random package from PyPI, well
> then your distro probably could or should provide it, so get it from them.

That is my thought about the entire __preview__ concept. Anything that
would/should go into __preview__ would be better off being packaged for
a couple of key distros (e.g., Ubuntu/Fedora/Gentoo) where they would
get better visibility than just being on PyPI and would be more flexible
in terms of release schedule to allow API changes.

If the effort being put into making the __preview__ package was put into
packaging those modules for distros, then you would get the same
exposure with better flexibility and a better maintenance story.  The
whole idea of __preview__ seems to be a workaround for the difficult
packaging story for Python modules on common distros -- stuffing them
into __preview__ is a cheat to get the distro packagers to distribute
these interesting modules since we would be bundling them.

However, as you have pointed out, it would very desirable to them to not
do so. So in the end, these modules may not receive as wide of
visibility as the PEP suggests. I could very easily imagine the more
stable distributions refusing or patching anything that used __preview__
in order to eliminate difficulties.

-- 
Scott Dial
scott at scottdial.com