[Distutils] Alternate static metadata PEP submission...

[David Lyon]

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 11:26:43 +0000, Floris Bruynooghe
>> Has anyone already suggested something like "python -m setup install"?
>> It would be rather similar and explicit, too.

Actually, I never came across that command line option and had no idea
that it even existed. But this is normal, because I don't try to find
out every command line possibility or even try to remember many past
half a dozen.

When I run it, I even get something (which is interesting):

c:\python26\lib\distutils\dist.py:266: UserWarning: Unknown distribution
option:
 'console'
  warnings.warn(msg)
running install
running build
running install_egg_info
Writing c:\python26\Lib\site-packages\UNKNOWN-0.0.0-py2.6.egg-info
running install
running build
running install_egg_info
Removing c:\python26\Lib\site-packages\UNKNOWN-0.0.0-py2.6.egg-info
Writing c:\python26\Lib\site-packages\UNKNOWN-0.0.0-py2.6.egg-info

> I'm sure that approach was mentioned in one of Tarek's very early
> proposals.  IIRC it went away because people didn't like the idea of a
> built-in installer/uninstaller in distutils...

That would be normal. It's not always easy to get any new idea up and 
flying. Even for somebody with all the good skills that Tarek has.

> .. but I'm not sure what the arguments where.

Perphaps along the lines that it is too much work and too hard. And
all the people who could actually do it were off working on their
own external projects (ie setuptools, distribute, pip, etc). Let's 
just move on and not worry why not.

> Personally I have no objection against it, if it would means you can
> omit setup.py if it's only going to call 'setup()' then why not.

I will try to figure out how to include this mechanism in my
alternate metadata PEP submission...

After trying running that, it seems that it could be quite cool...

(Thanks for the tip - Georg)


David