Python equivalent of CPAN (Was: ANY NEWS ON THE STARSHIP?)

[Paul Moore]

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 11:11:10 +0200, Paul Moore
<paul.moore at uk.origin-it.com> wrote:
>The same needs to be true of Python modules. I have an intense dislike
>of packages which are a pain to build from sources, and which come
>with mysterious binary installers which could, and often do, scatter
>things everywhere. Keep out of my registry, and don't put things in my
>SYSTEM(32) directory! Even if you uninstall cleanly, that's not
>enough...
>
>This is close to being the killer distinction between Python and Perl
>for me...

Ack! I've just found the distutils stuff. Looks like someone's already
solved this one. OK, so the issue now becomes why doesn't everyone use
distutils for everything? If there are modules which are too complex
for distutils to handle, then distutils should be improved. If it's
lack of knowledge about distutils, let's publicise it. If it's just
that distutils is very new, then let's encourage people to change as
part of the work to support Python 2.0.

BTW, just because a module is only a single .py file isn't a good
reason for not using distutils (or if it is, then distutils needs to
be better at handling trivial modules). Many, many modules on CPAN are
one .pm file (plus documentation, and tests - that's one thing Perl's
standard distribution modules encourage, is including tests and
documentation in the package).

OK, looks like I'm off to join the distutils sig.
Paul.