[Distutils] "Python Package Management Sucks"

[Chris Withers]

John Pinner wrote:
> To me, setup tools is missing two essential features of a package
> management system:
> 
> 1. Dependency management

I'm pretty sure setuptools does this.
It could probably do a better job of checking version and dependency 
clashes, but provided there are none of these, it actually does an OK job.

> 2. A means of removing packages.

Indeed, but this is because setuptools is layered on top of distutils, 
and distutils is the root of all evil.

>> Well that currently does not work as only a small minority of python
>> packages are available in the Debian package archives. What would nice
>> would be that the setup tools people in different languages and the
>> distributions would work together. E.g.:

It's a nice idea but the complexity of making this happen (especially 
all the silly political ramblings that would be involved) mean it's 
never going to happen...

cheers,

Chris

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