Python Packages : A looming problem? packages might no longer work? (well not on your platform or python version anyway)

[Scott David Daniels]

Daniel Fetchinson wrote:
> I don't think every package should work on every platform and with
> every version of python. But I do think that many developers want to
> support more platforms and versions than what they have access to.
> Having a test farm would be beneficial to these developers and their
> users.
> 
>>> This testing infrastructure should be available to developers who choose
>>> to opt in. Once they run their code and notice that there are errors,
>>> they will go back and fix these errors that otherwise would be
>>> undetected until a real person runs into them. Or they could clearly
>>> state what platform and python versions the code runs on for sure and on
>>> what platforms and python versions the code fails. This would be a great
>>> advantage to developers.
There is a cost here, however.  Core developers and large-userbase packages
like scipy or numpy are self-policing.  However, if you open machine
resources to every Python Package, you will have to police the resource
to make sure that you have provided a platform for malware distributors.
Now few of us think we want to provide that, but very few of us want to
spend the hours reading logs and ... to make sure that is not happening.


--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org