eggs considered harmful

[Robert Kern]

Harry George wrote:
> jjl at pobox.com (John J. Lee) writes:

>> Not sure how this differs significantly "from running a repository",
>> in the sense I use it above.
>>
>>
>> John
> 
> Significant differences:
> 
> "depot": Place(s) where tarballs can be stored, and can then be
> reached via http.  
> 
> "private egg repository": Tuned to the needs of Python eggs.  E.g.,
> not scattered over several directories or several versions.

Please note that easy_install can use source tarballs, too.

> Thus a depot of self-contained packages can handle:
> 
> 1. Multiple "releases" of the depot live at the same time.

I'm not sure how this is relevant.

> 2. Packages factored into CD-sized directories (not all in one "-f" location)

Of course, you can specify multiple locations for easy_install to find packages.
You can store these in your ~/.pydistutils.cfg file so you never have to type
them on the command line.

> 3. Multiple versions of Python, without having a new egg for each.
> 
> 4. Multiple target platforms.  Various *NIX and MS Win and Mac systems
> -- each at their own OS versions and own compiler versions.  All
> without having platform-specific and compiler-specific eggs.
> 
> 5. Different package version selections based on compatibility with
> other (non-Python) packages.  E.g., to tune for GIS systems vs 3D
> animation systems vs numerical analysis systems vs web server systems.
> 
> 6. Refresh process which does not need to fiddle with egg-ness, or
> even know about Python.  Everything is a tarball.

And all of these are obviated by the fact that easy_install can find and build
source tarballs, too.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco