When Python *Eggs* better than Python *distutils*?? What's Eggs?

[Paul Boddie]

Xavier Morel wrote:
> If you ever used a debian-based linux system, think of Eggs as a
> Python-specific apt-get.
>
> The most advanced kind of language-specific installer atm is the Ruby
> Gems packaging and distribution system (http://docs.rubygems.org/), go
> check it for more insight of what Eggs wants to be (and I hope it'll
> evolve to be as good as gems) (and the install software should be named
> eggs or hatch, not easy_install, ugly).

Could anyone enlighten me/us as to why the Smart Package Manager [1]
(written in Python, presented at EuroPython this year) isn't being more
closely investigated as part of a suitable solution?

Paul

[1] http://smartpm.org/