An FTP based Python Module repository (was Re: Imagemagick)

[tim muddletin]

cpatti at atg.com (chris patti) wrote:
>Umm, I'm not sure where you're getting the "tragic" from.

O the dark and dismal tragedy of any Python resource falling by the
wayside!

>I merely noted in my post that I felt a _centralized_ FTP based
>repository of all the freely available modules in existence for Python
>would be a Good Thing, because it would make things easier for both

And I merely noted the slight irony of how this may or may not relate to
the missing resource which was at the root of this meandering thread: that
the resource in question being so old, and never uploaded to the central
repository, such as it was.

I in no way mean any negative feeling or antagonistic attitude towards your
idea. Of course, a central repository can not be in any way a Bad Thing.

>/contrib on ftp.python.org != CPAN, you miss the point, I think.

Nay, you attribute a point to me that was not mine. In no way do i equate
CPAN with ftp.python.org --- except perhaps in the extremely limited sense
commonality of them being central FTP sites. However, since the point is
raised, I do still find it a curious fact that while ftp.python.org was
available so few people availed themselves of it. Too be sure, it grew to
be a rather unmanagable mess --- but still, messy as it may have grown, it
was a 'central' ftp repository nonetheless.

You may argue that if the site was "_maintained_" (as you say), there may
have been more incentive for people to upload there. And doubtless this
would be an excellent point, and quite plausible---but still I wonder about
this apparent conspicuous lack uploads at ftp.python.org when it was
running for many years. (Not to mention the presumable lack of volunteers
flocking to clean it up and add services to it---though the sins of the
past do not mean ammends for them would not be a good idea now).

If one goes back to the original resource that was being looked for at the
beginning of this thread, you will find that the web page for PythonMagick
indeed was there---the problem was that the FTP link on that page to the
actual file was dead... the directory no longer existed on that FTP site.
It seems curious that this author who evidently was already linking his
package to an external FTP site didn't choose to utilise ftp.python.org ...
so even in this case, where it seems a most favourable case for uploading
to ftp.python.org long ago (before it was quite so messy), the person chose
not to. I have no idea why not; i won't speculate.

I'm not advocating not uploading to ftp's, and I'm not saying a central FTP
based archive (CPAN-like, or otherwise) would not be helpful or useful, and
appealing to many! (After all, it's a fairly frequently recurring thread
here---Deja search for CPAN in this newsgroup reports about 300 hits.) I
wish you all good fortune imaginable in your pursuit of a central python
FTP archive. I here merely muse over the curiously ironic case which this
thread has spawned out of.

Just ignore me. (-:

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